The History of the Open-Air Museum

• A Vaasa home from the beginning of the 2Oth century 

The idea of creating the Brage association was born and took shape already in 1906 in Helsinki, on the initiative of Martin Wegelius and Otto Andersson. The idea generated interest also in Vaasa, where a branch was founded in 1908 with railway clerk Arvid Spjut as President. Although the Vaasa branch of Brage did not become an independent association until 1931, 1908 has always been regarded as the year of foundation.

The initiative for museum activity in the Vaasa Brage association was taken in 1917 by the shopkeeper and board member Uno Finnilä. The original reason for Finnilä's interest in an open-air museum was that the different sections and the members of the association needed an assembly room. At a board meeting, in 1917 Finnilä therefore suggested that an open-air museum should be set up. After lively discussions the Board decided with a great majority that they would strive to realize the plans.

Professor Gabriel Nikander had been observing the plans of Brage, and in a letter to the association he suggested that Brage should buy for the museum the buildings at the Harf (Harv) farmstead in southern Ostrobothnia. The house was the most beautiful fan-house he had ever seen between Närpes and Vaasa. The committee then made a decision to buy three buildings. In 1922 these were transported to Vaasa.

From the beginning of the eighteenth century the Harf farmstead had gone from father to son, up until 1918, when its owner Hans Henrik Harv died unmarried and without direct heirs. The siblings who inherited the farm sold it straight away to people interested in the forest belonging to the land. Within a year the farm was sold again, this time to Alfred and Alina Harv. By then the "America-fever" was raging in Ostrobothnia and also Alfred left for America. It was therefore Alina Harv and her children who were the last people to live in the house that has now become part of the Brage Open-Air Museum.

During a period of ten years all nine buildings from the Harf farmstead were bought. The last one to be bought was the main building, and on 4 June 1933 Brage could open up its open-air museum and light their own fire in the fire-place.

The main building of the Museum (to the right), with the well and lever in the foreground.

Interior (below) from the living room of the main building.

By 1940, the Drama section of Brage had its heyday and each year several theatrical performances were given. These attracted a large audience and the association got its economy in order.

During the War in the 1940s, the main building of the Museum served as a shelter during bomb raids. The house was heated and became a place of refuge for old people, women and children, who felt that they were safer here on the outskirts of the town than in the town centre. As a resting-place for nurses who had served at the Front, the Museum could also offer a contribution to the welfare of the country during the War.

Of all the buildings in the Brage Open-Air Museum, the Harf unit belongs to the most interesting ones. The Harf farmstead is well documented. In 1705 Harf is mentioned for the first time in the population register. It is known through district court protocols, where damage claims have been put forward, that the village of Böle was burned by the Russians during the period of calamity in 1808-09, and so were the Harf buildings.