employees in the 1950s.
Etymology The oldest privilege books of Helsinki dating back to 1569 show the name of the island as
Sompeholmen, and later names include
Sompareholmen in maps from the 17th century,
Sumparen in 1775 and
Sumpörn in 1779.
Finnish names have included
Sumparni and
Sumppari in the late 19th century. In the early 19th century the island was also called
Lowiseholm after its tenant, Kristina Lovisa, wife of marine captain
Gustaf Wilhelm Sundman. The names
Sumppari -
Sumparn were made official in 1909 and the island got its current Finnish name in 1928. The Swedish name means a
corf and refers to old fish trade; "
sump" is originally a
Low German word. Thus a more proper Finnish name would be *
Sumppusaari.
In recreational use Sompasaari originally served as a recreational retreat for Helsinkians, accessed by steamship. Almost 30 people lived in the wooden villas on the island in the early 20th century.
In harbour use The high cliffs of Sompasaari were blasted away, ground flat and connected to the mainland when the
Sörnäinen Harbour was expanded seaward from 1958 to 1962. At the same time all the old wooden houses on the island were dismantled. Land reclamation use in the area had already been started in the 1950s when two islands,
Hanasaari and Kana were combined as the foundation of the new power plant. and the area is intended to be fully completed in 2026. The city of Helsinki has predicted that there will be 3901 people living in the area by 2029. A park called Loviseholminpuisto will be located in the centre of Sompasaari. The shores of the island contain lots for restaurant ships. Sompasaari.jpg|Converting the area for residential use required cleaning the soil, revealing the old coastal cliffs. Kalasatama dokumentointi - G35429 - hkm.HKMS000005-km0000nbsn.jpg|Finland's first and largest urban farm was temporarily located in the area under construction in the early 2010s. New residential construction in Sompasaari, Sörnäinen, Helsinki, Finland, 2021 July.jpg|New apartment buildings have been built since 2018. Construction of Nihdinkanava canal in Sompasaari, Helsinki, Finland, 2019 September - 2.jpg|The Nihdinkanava channel separates Nihti and Sompasaari. ==Nomenclature==