Industrial Workers’ Housing Museum

The museum gives an insight into the living conditions of working people in the new industries of Finland from around 1900 until the 1960s. The forestry and papermaking company Tornator began a factory on the River Vuoksi in south-east Finland in 1895. It built 20 apartment houses in distinctive timber architecture for the new workers and their families. Other facilities for the community included a sauna, laundry, bakehouse, shop, post office and school. A market square was added in 1904 and a fire-station provided space for community activities. The houses fell out of use and most were demolished in the 1960s but the river-side site with two remaining buildings was given to the city of Imatra. The museum opened in 1975. One building displays the furnished interiors of working-class homes in around 1900, the 1940s and the 1960s. The other is the sauna, where visitors learn about services provided for the well-being and health of the workers.