Bringing Wisdom To The Countryside Part III

I next started exploring the wing behind the large doors in the lobby. It was in a better shape than the gym, but decay had started to find its way here, too. The radiators had been removed here. The school no more had a functioning heating system. Hadn’t probably had one for years.

The door to the left revealed a rather large classroom. The last coffees of the school are here spilled all over the floor. Also the radiators have been left in their place here, which is a rather strange detail. If remove most of them, why not remove them all.

Unless it’s been burglars, who have stolen them and sold them for scrap metal, until somebody surprised them.

The blackboards have also been left here. And of course someone has taken their chance to write their greetings on them.

Another classroom. Although this one is on the ground floor, the roof has taken a lot of damage.

Another shot from the classroom at the end of the corridor. The vintage curtains are probably from the 1960’s or the 1970’s.

Heading back towards the lobby, which is on the left.

The narrow corridor started from behind the door seen on the right in the previous picture and ended in the small room behind the first classroom seen in this post.

This room featured a large display. It has probably been used to display stuffed birds and other animals, which were very common in old schools like this.

Upstairs we go, then. Again there was a basement, but again I refused to go there. I have this thing of not entering basements, which you surely have noticed by now, if you’ve followed this blog closely.

The corridor on the second floor looks pretty much like the one on the first floor.

The door to the left led to another classroom with very little furniture remaining.

This one has probably been the classroom of physics and chemistry judging by the water taps and smashed fume cupboard.

A closer look at the fume cupboard – and me. Good luck with recognizing!

The classroom at the end of the corridor. Again the radiators were missing, again the floor tiles have started peeling off and again stuff is falling down from the roof.

The interesting thing is, that the roof is made of concrete. I’ve seen wooden buildings collapse, but let’s see, what happens first: the concrete will give in or the building will be demolished.

One final look at the classroom.

And one outside. The old school’s gym has been behind those windows and the main entrance directly underneath them. Unfortunately I couldn’t visit the old gym because of the bad condition of the building.

Here I am heading back towards the stairs.

Apparently the floor of the building is also in a pretty bad shape as former basketball basket plates have been placed on it. They fit surprisingly well.

After leaving the insides I decided to try to get some external shots of the school. It was pretty difficult because of all the trees.

Apparently there is a rather large basement below the gym. Unfortunately I still don’t enter basements.

It was quite an effort trying to find anything about the history of the building, but this is what I’ve managed to piece together.

The school was originally founded as a private school back in the 1920’s and they built their new building, the wooden part in the late 1930’s. The school was expanded twice in the 1950’s with the concrete wings.

Although it was a private school with tuition fees, the municipality helped to support it and provided loan guarantees for expansion. The school grew in the 1960’s to become the first school in the municipality to provide education all the way until right below university level.

In the 1970’s the school system of Finland was renewed, and the school became a public school with classes from elementary school and high school. It served as the main school in the municipality until a new one was built in 1987.

It was a bit hard for me to believe that the school would have been abandoned for more than 30 years, but maybe this was the case then.

Edit 28.11.2023. There has recently been news about the municipality starting proceedings to take over the property. They have tried to contact the owner several times with the order to demolish the decaying and hazardous buildings, but the owner hasn’t been reached. The most likely outcome is, that the municipality will take over the buildings, demolish them and build chain houses on the lot. The detail plan already allows this.