The following location is a former town hall of the municipality of Värtsilä. The birthplace of what now is the global corporation Wärtsilä, it was seriously affected by the second world war, when its most important areas had to be ceded to the Soviet union.
The remaining Finnish municipality of Värtsilä was always a very small one, back in the 1960’s it only had around 1500 inhabitants. Yet this building was built as its town hall.
In 2004 the amount of inhabitants was down to around 600 and the municipality was merged with the neighbouring Tohmajärvi, also suffering of a catastrophic decline in population. That was why so many public buildings including this 1957 town hall were useless.
For years it was used by the local village association. There was also a garage for firetrucks in the right hand end of the building in the picture.
According to this history, the fire station moved away earlier in 2023. As there was no use for the building, it was destined for demolition.
The doors to the fire station seen here.
And the back of the building. According to the memorial, there were apartments in addition to the municipal offices in the building.
The demolition of the building started in August 2023, less than a month after these pictures were taken.