This beauty here is a former elementary school built in 1929. Behind it is the newer school built in 1955. The school was closed in 2009 and sold to a private owner in 2012.
The new owner renovated and rescued this old beauty, but in 2021 they put it up for sale. Technically it isn’t abandoned, it is just waiting for a new owner.
If I remember correctly, the building found a new owner, and for now its future looks to be safe. I just decided to feature it here, because it sets another good example, that old schools can be rescued if there is will.
After fully charging my camera and checking a couple of locations, I returned to the factory village, where I photographed the local store earlier that day. By now it was raining for real.
This time my aim was to check on the old apartment buildings.
The first two were yellow. And locked. It looked pretty much like each building would feature four apartments.
The first two were empty, but in a fairly good condition. The third one seemed a lot more run down.
And quite right enough, this one was a wreck.
The destruction in the first apartment was total. The ceiling was coming down and growing something green, the floor was also in a very bad shape.
This one counted as an access, but I couldn’t progress further.
A look back towards the yellow building in a much better shape.
The second apartment.
The damage in the small hall was extensive. The quality of the photo is also very bad.
I don’t think that the ceiling line should have a shape like that.
Well, it indeed looks like the collapse has started from the back side.
There was even a small walk in closet.
And this is the former living room. The previous yellow house can be seen through the window.
A few broken chairs were still present.
The back of the building. Full collapse has indeed started.
The following, grey building seen from the collapsed porch. But I wasn’t quite ready with this one.
Another one of my so beloved 1950’s old schools. I’ve spotted this a couple of times, and I haven’t really been sure of its status. But after this I am.
If you look closer, there are cars parked on the parking lots. If you look even closer, there are lights in two of the windows on the top floor.
So this building is definitely still in some use. And I am wholeheartedly glad about it. May this one set a good example that use can still be found for these old beauties.
The following location was pretty much next to the previous one. It was another old business building built in 1947. Again I wasn’t sure, if it was abandoned or not. It was just on the list of buildings to be demolished by the municipality.
And according to the sign it was a resturant-café, a computer café, a flea market, a laundry and an internet point. Again it didn’t look very active, but who knows.
Judging by the E on the wall it was a former workers’ co-operative. The history of the co-operatives has been covered here.
It was on the demolition list, but I was pretty uncertain about it being completely abandoned or not. If I had been around during lunch time I would know for sure.
But yeah. At least I managed to document it, in case the municipality becomes active. It has so much to demolish, though, that I’m not holding my breath.
Although I had found a hidden treasure in the old industrial village featured in the previous post, I had to leave quickly. It was starting to rain, my camera battery was starting to drain and I was hungry.
I drove to the nearest town, went for a kebab and charged my battery. After a small break I was ready to go. The only issue was, that the rain was intensifying.
I had also found this municipality’s property strategy, and found the list of the buildings to be demolished. The first one was a real legend.
The first one was a clothes, shoe and flowers shop, something quite similar to this one, but larger. This building even featured apartments upstairs.
It was built in the 1930’s and enlarged in the 1960’s, when it received this horrible facade with the white boards. Originally a legend in the area, its best days were long since gone. The store no longer sells flowers, but apparently still does clothes despite its rather worn out looks.
Somebody might still be living in the upstairs apartments, too.
Although not completely abandoned, as it will be demolished in the near future, I’m glad to have documented it.
After the second world war, a new village with a new steel factory was founded. Of course all the infrastructure with worker apartments, a school and business buildings was built. The steel factory became small, was closed and the village slowly started to die.
This is the co-operative store and post office of the village. Looks like it has been shut down decades ago.
The building has slowly started to collapse.
Every opening seems to be broken. Looks like an easy entrance.
Entering the first business premises. I believe, that this is the former post office.
The furniture inside looks to be from the 1990’s. There was probably some use after the post office use.
The windows of this space. And a lurking Volvo behind them.
Moving on forward. As you can see, the building is in a very bad condition.
The back door of the post office.
This probably used to be a staff room.
I wonder, what this machine has been used for.
The front of the post office. The building is extremely tilted.
The remains of an old S-group logo. It was used between 1979 and 1985. Maybe that was the era, when the store was closed.
The old fridges and some other displays were still there.
This was the ice cream freezer.
The rest of the store. It was extermely small.
A brand of water from decades ago. This place was really closed down a long ago.
This was as far as I was willing to go in the collapsing building. My camera battery was almost finished, so I had to drive to the town center to have a kebab and charge it.
But I would be back in this village. And sooner than later.
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.
Village school number two. This one was also founded in 1926 and the current school building was constructed in 1950. It was closed in 2006.
The eaves are failing, but the doors are well locked. It was starting to look like another failure.
It looks like the teacher apartments are in this wing. The doors to the building and the nonexistent balcony are not that old. So maybe the building has seen some use after the school years after all.
I did visit a couple of more schools in the area, but they looked like they still had life in them. It was a day not very well spent.
Or was it?
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