Ex elementary school, a photo from Southern Finland, South

Photographer's Note

I had a walk around some old parts of the Espoo centre in a cloudy winter day, when the frosty trees decorated the landscape in a fine way. This photo shows Espoo School Museum seen from the path, which goes along the southern bank of Espoonjoki river. The museum's main building is that on the right. In WS you can see the main building of the school museum at the entrance side.

The museum shows the activity of schools from the early 20th century until the 1950s. The exhibition has a wide range of exhibits and is packed with information on elementary school teachers and the school year, teaching aids and curricula, and school meals. The exhibition also includes old desks, and if you sit at one of them you're sure to recall your own time at school.

Espoo City Museum's School Museum is the oldest primary school building in Espoo.

The school (Lagstads folkskola) was completed in 1873. At that time 90% of the inhabitants of Espoo were Swedish speaking. It was used as a school until the end of the 1954 spring term, when a new school building was finished. Since then, the old Lagstad primary school has housed the offices of various Espoo City departments.

Nowadays, the building has been rented to Esbo Hembygdsförening rf (Espoo local heritace association) for use as a local history centre. The building has been restored to what it looked like when it was a primary school. Artefacts and other material relating to schools have been collected for a long time for Espoo City Museum collections.

Here you can see a picture of a school class, one page of the net exhibition of the museum, which unfortunately is only in Finnish and Swedish. The text says "You can try how it feels to sit in the old school desk, have a look inside it and see what and how had been taught in the schools of Espoo during the decades."

Here you can see such school desks.

When the school building was completed it had two classes, one for girls, the other for boys. The teacher of the girls also lived in the school building. For the teacher of the boys a separate building was built in the same courtyard. Sometimes the teachers also owned animals, sheep, pigs and hens. Already in 1887 the school was expanded to include a transverse wing. With it the school got a third class. According to the norm of those days the school had separate entrances for girls and boys.

Man kan se en svensk webutställning här.

Geocode: 60.207864, 24.651722

You can see the place of the museum also in another map here.

Longroute, daddo, saxo042, ktanska, akm, UlfE, jlbrthnn, Kielia, Didi has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

manudautriche (4348) 2010-03-04 10:28

Hello Lasse,
Que ces maisons typique du pays sont splendides et tu les as photographié dans un décor magnifique avec une balances des blancs extra et j'aime les fines traces de pas au premier plan qui nous emmène au fond,belle ambiance,bravo.
Bye
Manu

Longroute (19600) 2010-03-04 10:42

The severe and yet exquisite beauty of winter!
A pure and neat image which couples the harmony of this simple and functional architecture whith the intricate broidery that only vegetal life can create. And both nature and architecture are an adaptation to this snowy enviroment. That perhpas can explain why they fit one another very well! (:-)
Stopping at the first impression that is what this photo inspires me: a sense of purity, of harmony and beauty. Those two houses in the mid of all that white are like a dreamy vision. Now it's my turn to stay here and stare at it! (:-)
An excellent work, Lasse, even my wife says that's very fine!
(The ws is fine too... thanks for that complimentary view)
My best compliments,
Donato

emka (158204) 2010-03-04 11:20

Hello Lasse, Wonderful winter composition. Winter can have a lot of charm. Great job. Regards

Malgorzata

Jeppo (17645) 2010-03-04 12:21

ciao Lasse,

nice chromatic contrast....I love those red buildings...they seems to come out right from a fairy tale....

tfs
silvio

francio64 (39888) 2010-03-04 12:31

Ciao Lasse,
bella immagine invernale ricca di grafismo dato dall'intreccio dei rami secchi degli alberi.

Eccellente contrasto cromatico tra la ex scuola e la neve bianca.

Well done!
Francesco

daddo (28748) 2010-03-04 15:46

Hi Lasse. Wonderful image with its deep reds and the nicely textured snow curtains. ina way it is sad that the school is not used anymore but at the same time nice to see the past preserved so that one can see how the previous generations lived. I looked at your other interior shots and the furniture does look as if it was restored with great care. Pity that a light or two couldn't be seen through those windows for that special mood. regards. Klaudio.

saxo042 (38078) 2010-03-04 23:12

Hej Lasse,
This is a very beautiful picture with the red painted houses (do you call this "Falurött" in Finland too?) against the white snow and the black trees. This school looks a lot like the one I attended when I was 8 and 9 years old... You have also supplied a very interesting note and links, so this picture is indeed a perfect TE contribution!
Hälsningar
Gunnar
PS What is the percentage of Swedish speaking inhabitants is Esbo today?

ktanska (44804) 2010-03-05 2:56

Hei Lasse,
Nice group of classic red buildings one wouldn't expect to find so close to city. But obviously this region was quite rural those days. Good combination of red walls and white snow.
(Google map -linkki näyttää vähän metsään)
Kari

papagolf21 (152607) 2010-03-05 5:40

Bonjour, cher Lasse,
Les maîtres d'école sont des jardiniers en intelligences humaines.
Une très belle image hivernale qui rappelle des souvenirs d'enfance.
Amitiés.
Philippe

cobra112 (15589) 2010-03-05 13:27

Ciao Lasse. Fantastic contrast in this lightning and sharpened fascinating winter view.

Roberto

akm (1216) 2010-03-05 14:15

Hello Lasse,
What a magical image! The red buildings and the white sky behind the screen of trees shine out and invite the viewer to explore. And then come your excellent note and extra images! What a splendid and civilized idea for a museum. BTW, at school I sat at a desk like the one you show -- complete with inkwell! Thank you and have a very good weekend,
Mary

holmertz (102774) 2010-03-05 14:20

Hej Lasse,
This is a great and sophisticated composition of red and silver, very clean and stylish. Incidentally, this reminds me of the school I attended when I was 9-10 years. (Some started a year earlier). Did the teachers in this school beat up the kids, as was the case in our village?
There was not much light on this day in January, but itäs very soft and pleasant.
Hälsningar,
Gert

Disabled_A (0) 2010-03-05 15:26

Hello Lasse,
what an interesting set of photos (including those links to which you provided in the Note)! I am impressed! :)
Frankly speaking, colour-wise, I like the WS photo (the entrance side) a bit more ;)
VERY winter-like mood... fairly idyllic!
The red colour stands out very effectively against the shite-greyish snow :)
Warmest greetings from frosty Moscow!
Elena
PS. hopefully, an email is coming soon :)

UlfE (14641) 2010-03-06 11:35

Hej Lasse,

A wonderful winter scene. Even if it is not taken in beuatiful weather I have a feeling that the scence could not be very much better than this. I love the winter mood and the absence of shadows and the white clean snow probably contribute a lot to the attractiveness of the scence. Your composition is excellent as usual and as always a very useful and informative note. TFS and have a nice weekend!

Hälsningar,

Ulf

jlbrthnn (76043) 2010-03-07 6:25

Hello Lasse,
The winter landscape is superb. The low-angle shot avoids with the low branches of mask these constructions and their color which brightens the greyness. I like the compoistion and the very good realization, very clear. Congratulations.
Have a nice sunday
Cordially
Joël

yquem46 (38752) 2010-03-07 9:50

Hello lasse
I like this one, so typical with the snow and the colorful wood houses, and reminding me of the good ol' times when I was working in Uppsala
Have a good evening
patrick

Kielia (24077) 2010-03-08 10:16

Hi Lasse,
a very attractive and very well composed impression of these typical buildings. The light and the colors are beautiful. I love the atmosphere that you have captured here and as already mentioned by Elena, the entire set of photos is fascinating. My compliments!
Warm regards
Harriet

mauro61 (53429) 2010-03-09 0:24

ciao lasse,
splendida immagine con le case rosse a rompere il bianco della scena.
Ottima gestione della luce,
un saluto
maurizio

carper (96) 2010-03-10 9:00

very beautiful Lasse,
the red is fantastic in this fine and well taken wintershot, very good photo job here, I like it a lot, have a good evening.
regard jaap

pablominto (53746) 2010-03-11 23:35

Hello Lasse,

A picturesque place - like here in winter, and I'm sure in summer too!
The one story red wooden buildings, located among the trees make up a fine motif indeed...
The low light adds a special mood, and the houses appear in a rather muted red..!

Greetings,
Pablo -

Didi (61589) 2010-03-25 1:46

Hello Lasse
Very nice winter view
Very original houses by the colour because you will never found in France such coloured houses.
Best regards