Haapavesi School Museum
From congregation house to school museum
The first rural folk school in Northern Finland was established in Haapavesi in 1870. The decision to found the school was made in the same building where the school museum is located nowadays. Back then the building served as a congregation house, where decisions on the municipality’s affairs were made. In this same building, the Haapavesi folk school started its operations and additional school wing was built, but later demolished. In 1904, following a remark by the folk school inspector, the whole building became available to the folk school, because according to the inspector, its use for “other side purposes” disturbed the folk school operation too much.
The high wing of the school class building was demolished in the 1960s when the new school in Mäkirinne was built. This way the school building made space for the construction of a new Nivalantie road.
Already in the 1950s, the cottage became available for museum use, when the Haapavesi Society needed a suitable place for the museum object collection. In the 1980s, the main exhibition of the museum moved to the ground floor of the city hall, leaving the house for storage.
The idea of a school museum arose in the 1990s, and by gradually renovating the school museum, the first exhibition set was opened to the public in the spring of 2001, and for many years the items were added to the collection.
