Hyvinkään Villatehdas

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Hyvinkää Villatehdas was the largest and most diversified woollen mill in Finland. The industrial complex and the workers' housing area reflect the importance of the 20th-century weaving industry for the development of the small market town of Hyvinkää, which grew up along the main line, with the mill as its largest employer. The production buildings and the workers' residential areas, particularly Port Arthur, have survived in almost their original form.

The founding of the woollen mill in 1892 started Hyvinkää's development into an industrial community. Alongside the railways, it had a significant influence on the life and environment of the locality from the turn of the century until the 1980s.

The oldest factory buildings of the woollen mill are located around an inner courtyard lined with linden trees. The courtyard park is a rare surviving private industrial park in Finland. The expansion of the mill was carried out as an impressive series of long factory halls. The overall appearance of the area differs from other historical textile industry environments thanks to its single-storey factory buildings with lantern roofs. The stair towers and water towers of the factory building row, in turn, are distinctive features typical of textile industry architecture.

The core of the woollen mill consists of factory buildings from the early 20th century and the 1910s, which have been extended in several phases as production needs required. The newest building is the fibre store completed in 1984. After production ceased, the central storehouse, power plant and dye house, which belonged to the building phase of the 1920s and 1930s, were demolished. The oldest building, the present TechVilla, was built in 1895-1896. The new woollen mill of 1910, the so-called horseshoe, originally comprised the weaving shed, office building, finishing house and power plant.

The factory area passed into the ownership of the City of Hyvinkää in 1997, and premises are rented out to outside parties. The former fire station of the woollen mill, in the middle of the courtyard park area, operates as the Valvilla factory museum.

History

The wool mill began operations in 1892 as a small spinning mill based on handicraft. Its founder was the engineer Ossian Donner, who within a few years transferred ownership to a company, under the name Hyvinge Yllespinneri & Väfveri Ab (Hyvinkään Villakehräämö ja Kutomo Oy). The foundation of the company's success was the upswing in the wool industry that began at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the Hyvinkää factory, formed by merging the Donner family's two wool mills located in Helsinki.

The first spinning building was constructed on the present industrial site in 1895-1896, and extension work began in 1899. The so-called Port Arthur workers' residential buildings were built at the beginning of the 20th century. Weaving of women's fabrics was moved from Helsinki to Hyvinkää in 1907, into a factory hall completed on the east side of the old weaving mill. Worsted yarn spinning was moved from Helsinki in 1914, into a factory hall built on the west side of the old weaving mill. In 1925, Willy Nykopp, head gardener of the central garden of the State Railways, prepared a park plan for Yhdistyneiden Villatehtaiden.

The 1930s and 1950s were economically favourable, which was also reflected in building investments. The following decades were a time of renovation measures, which nevertheless led to the closure of the factory in 1991. The last to maintain the wool industry in the area was Valvilla Oy, and after factory operations ended, the buildings were put to office use.