Vuosaari could have become Westend in Vantaa, as the area belonged to the Helsinki countryside until 1966. However, too good sand deposits and the world political situation ruined the Nordic Riviera.
What comes to mind when you think of Vuosaari?
Harbor, at least. Beautiful pine groves and a long sandy beach grow on the rocks. A multicultural residential area and one of the tallest residential buildings in Finland.
But the villa town of Vantaa. It doesn’t come to mind at first glance, even though Vuosaari sometimes was.
In Finland was enthusiastic about villa life in the late 19th century, as cities grew. The wealthy people of Helsinki in particular were fascinated by the opportunity to go wild in the summer, as they did in major European cities.
Suitable places for summer settlement were sought in the outer perimeter of Helsinki.
Vuosaari, located east of Helsinki, still belonged to the rural countryside of Helsinki, the present-day Vantaa, but could be reached quite easily by water. After all, steamships had been pounding in the area irregularly as early as the middle of the 19th century.
Many who appreciate nature had time to get to know Vuosaari’s magnificent beaches and forests on day trips.
Reportedly author Zacharias Topelius popped on a summer sailing trip in Nordsjö in 1839 and praised the area as “picturesque.” In the summer of 1855, Skatka’s farm also enjoyed itself Alexis Stenvall or Aleksis Kivi.
The precursor to villa culture was being a summer tenant, as many families were able to rent cottages from locals for the summer.
Drinking coffee in the backyard of Bergbacka in Ramsinniemi, Vuosaari, in 1913. The villa was built by Oscar Schetelig, the owner of the German horticultural shop, around 1912. In front of the daughters of Schetelig.
Vuosaari had long been a quiet and peaceful island.
When Vartiokylänlahti and Porvarinlahti descended and eventually grew closed, the island joined the mainland sometime after the 16th century.
In the Middle Ages, there was a peasant life in Vuosaari. Later, manors such as Vuosaari Manor and Rastila Manor were established in the area.
Vuosaari’s growth was curbed by distances.
The journey by land to the center of Helsinki by horseback via Viikki or Malmi easily took up to six hours. When the train track from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna opened, the journey from Vuosaari to the center of Helsinki became a little easier: first I had to walk along the winding cart track to Malmi, from where I could hop on the train.
When regular steamship traffic from Helsinki via Vuosaari to Sipoo and Porvoo began in the 1880s, the situation changed.
The ball game boccia is played in the yard of the villa Åsa in Kallahti at Midsummer 1924.
Villa for boaters leaving Åsa near Kalliosaari in front of Kallahti in 1903.
Schroderus family villa in Talludden Kallahti in 1919.
First The actual summer villa in Vuosaari was Villa Källvik, built by the sisters Mary, Julia and Nina Plaksin To Kallahdenniemi in 1885.
This was the beginning of a heated villa season, which only intensified when the manors of Nordsjö and Rastila began to sell their land as villa plots. The villas in the Stockholm archipelago and Turku’s Ruissalo serve as role models for summer places.
Villa operations were facilitated by new regulations related to land subdivision.
In the 1860s, a decree had been passed that allowed the division of rams and heir farms. The farms were exempt from the land tax.
Thus, it was possible to acquire the villa plots as own, not just for rent.
In addition to Kallahdenniemi, dozens of villas were built in Kallahti, Ramsinniemi, Mustalahti, ie the current Aurinkolahti, Uutela and Skatanniemi.
Old sources often refer to Kallvik, which meant both Kallahti and Kallahdenniemi.
The villas were made primarily for summer living. They were designed by the most renowned architects in our country, such as Eliel Saarinen, Selim A. Lindqvist and Lars Sonck.
Summer spenders on the shores of Kallahti in 1912. From left Frank Greuling, Maud Greuling, Anna Edelman, Olav Karsten and Wally Karsten.
Small sailing villa on the shores of Åsa in the 1910s.
What summer villas rightly done?
All kinds of.
The scenic area had sandy beaches and ridges. The sea flickered next door, the archipelago here invitingly. Many families had their own sailboat or at least a rowing boat. They went on excursions and fishing. Dances were held on the large piers of the steamships.
In the courtyards of the villas you will be provided with some kind of garden. They made food and pleasure, and someone took chickens to the yard.
In the summer, young men practiced athletics in nature: running, jumping, ball, puck and spear. Terrain tracks were made in the forests and sand pits. The great fun of the little boys was to collect snakes meandering in the area in glass bottles.
In Vuosaari, the families who owned the villages mostly socialized with each other, but there was also enough sociality there. Wealthy residents of Helsinki, but also Russian and German merchants, lived in the villas.
Food products or services, such as construction aid, were mainly bought from locals.
Two men returning from an excursion to the beach of GM von Essen’s villa, Udde, in Kallahti in 1929.
In Vuosaari at the turn of the 20th century there was more than just villas. Namely sand.
The sand in Kallahti had been chartered for construction work in Viapori and Helsinki for a hundred years, which is why large sand pits had formed in the area. In return for the sand, the people of Helsinki gave the local farms maki waste, or waste from outdoor toilets, which was also called black gold. It could fertilize the fields.
The sand strongly steered the direction of the area, and it also played its part in the following ambitious plan:
In 1917, an international sea bath, the real Nordic Riviera, was used in Kallahti. Adjacent would have attracted long sandy beaches and the sea, next door would have built a beach hotel, playgrounds and a casino. The spa would have brought more villas and life to the neighborhood.
Vuosaari could have become like Finland’s own Nice!
Maybe Vuosaari Spa would have competed with Hanko Spa as well?
Customers would have relied heavily on solvent Russian tourists, which was enough in Vuosaari’s villas. But when the Russian revolutions plunged the country into chaos, spa plans had to be abandoned.
The spa would not have worked for Finnish customers.
Column in the garden of Jalo Syvähuoko ‘s villa in Vuosaari, photographed in 1930.
People villa on the beach of Bergbacka in Vuosaari in 1913.
Sand eventually also contributed to the gradual flourishing of villa culture.
Just before the Winter War, Saseka Oy’s brick and lightweight concrete plant began operations in Vuosaari.
The factory management had stated that Vuosaari would be an ideal operating environment: there was sand for the factory’s needs and the proximity to the sea facilitated the transport of the products.
When a road was built from Helsinki via Herttoniemi and Kulosaari to Vuosaari at the same time, the journey was considerably shortened.
The arrival of the road happened at the right time.
After the wars, a large part of Finnish steamships were handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Steamships were no longer enough for the needs of Vuosaari’s villa traffic.
The factory brought buzz and wealth to the area. Employees moved to Vuosaari all over Finland, and Saseka built residential houses and services for its employees. By 1949, there were already 700 inhabitants in the Saseka area.
Oy Saseka Ab’s factory in Kuosahti, Vuosaari. In front you can see the machine shop, in the middle the factory building, in the back the Siporex warehouse and the harbor. In the background, the scenic Harju of Kallahdenniemi. Photo taken in 1956. The factory closed in Vuosaari in 1978. Today, the factory has an old canteen building, the Saseka House, which serves as the clubhouse in the area.
Peaceful however, the life of the factory shocked the villa life. Noise and pollution came from the factory.
It wasn’t long before some of the old villa residents got enough. In the late 1940s, many decided to stick their villa door latches and move out.
Although many left, there were enough newcomers: among other things Paavo Nurmia national sports hero, bought a villa plot in Saseka in 1939.
In the coming decades, villas suitable for year-round living in the area were built by commercial advisers, professors, master builders and shipowners, among others.
Businesses also began to acquire villas for representation and training purposes.
Von Freymann’s villa in Kallahti. Shooting time unknown.
Vuosaari moved from the countryside of Helsinki to the city of Helsinki in 1966.
At the same time, the future Vantaa lost its connection to the seashore, and the maritime villa idyll became the eastern suburb of Helsinki.
It was no big surprise, as it had been speculated for decades. After the regional union, the city bought a large part of the villa plots for itself.
At this point at the latest, many villas experienced a barren end: when no one took care of the villas anymore, they deteriorated into demolition. The fire destroyed a few.
However, some of the villas are still standing.
The next time you drive on the narrow road of Kallahdenniemi over a pine ridge, blink left and right.
From there, behind the lush forest, you may find a piece of history.
Vuosaari photographed from the air in the summer of 2013. The quiet beach is now a densely built-up residential area.
Sources: Torolf Lassenius’ work Life in Kallahti, Vuosaari, and the Vuosaari Society’s Vuosaari Nordsjö in Helsinki. The Vuosaari Society’s website Kallahti’s hometown trail has also been used as a source.
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