39 The History of Eläintarha Villa no. 14 In 1889, a Frans Oskar Blom (born 1852 in Rauma) built villa no. 14 in Eläintarha. Blom had moved to Helsinki in 1875. The villa was also known as Villa Djurgårdsvillan 14, or after the family name, Villa Blom. Stylistically, the villa was influenced by the neo-Renaissance. While the villa was being built, the family lived next door, in a house called Röda Villan, the Red Villa. Before the Blom’s time and a fresh coat of paint, it had been called Gröna Villan, the Green Villa. Since the 1840s, Gröna Villan had served as a brothel and restaurant particularly popular with students, and the writer Sakari Topelius was often spotted there having his late supper. Oskar Blom married Olga Cecilia Wikander (born 1855 in Raahe) in 1877. The family soon started to grow and the Bloms came to have four daughters and three sons. The first born, Gerda, was born in 1879, with Orvar, the eldest son, following the next year, then daughter Signe, sons Ragnar and Thorsten, and finally the youngest daughters Maria (Maija) and Hedvig (Heddi). The family also included the long-serving maid Alma. The youngest of the children, Maija, Heddi, and Thorsten were particularly close, getting up to all sorts of mischief playing in the area around the villa. The girls also went to school together. Oskar Blom worked for the State Railways, first as a ticket clerk and later as a cashier. The position was a responsible one: a cashier was, for example, the head of all the ticket collectors. Two of his daughters, Signe, a clerk, and Maria, an accountant, also worked for the railways. The Bloms lived upstairs in Villa no. 14, in a flat that comprised six rooms plus kitchen. Oskar’s corner room was a combined study and bedroom. Olga’s room was called Gula kammaren, the yellow room. In this room, the youngest of the children, Heddi, was born. The daughters first shared a bedroom as did the boys. Thorsten kept a skull on the table of the boys’ room to the great horror of the girls. In the middle of the first floor, there was a large hall, where guests were entertained. The separate dining room was next to Olga’s room. There was a doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, which is where Alma slept. The kitchen was warm and cosy and hence the children’s favourite room. Everyone used the servants’ stairs in the kitchen, while the main staircase was seldom used. The downstairs of the villa was rented out to several families. The house had, in fact, four separate flats, with several people living in each room. The tenants were students and workers, as were most of those living in the lower villas on Eläintarha. Villa no. 14 was deemed, thanks to its location, as being “in between” the upper and lower villas. The southern side, sloping towards the sea, had a large vegetable garden growing potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, herbs, and strawberries. It was a big chore for the children to pick the harvest. Fishing was also a useful and popular hobby. In the nearby bay, Tokoinranta, there was as much fish as one could eat. The everyday life of a family with so many children was tremendously busy, but under the strict yet loving control of the mother, the children did their share of the household chores: fetching water from the well and carrying wood to heat the ovens. Dinner was always eaten punctually and everyone would sit in his or her own place. Father
Elaintarhan huvilahistoriikki
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