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History of Lahti Manor

Kuva: Lahden museot, kuvakokoelmat, Atelier Universal Carl Klein.

The Historical Museum is located in the former Lahti Manor. The rose-coloured house was built as the family home of an important man in a small town, captain August Fellman (1839–1912). After his family, the building has been used by a day-care centre and a school. Since 1968, the building has housed a museum showcasing the cultural history of Lahti and the Päijät-Häme region.

The manor was designed by architect Hjalmar Åberg (1870–1935), and it was completed in 1898. The building is well loved by the residents of the city: it has been voted the most beautiful building in Lahti. Modern content is being built inside the walls of the old bourgeois home – exhibitions, events and activities.

Viiksekäs mies mustavalkoisessa kuvassa sotilasunivormussa

August Fellman

August Abraham Fellman was born in 1839 in Lappajärvi to a bourgeois family of clergymen. The surname Fellman literally means ‘a fell man’, and it was first used as a last name in the 17th century. August Fellman’s father Jaakko Fellman was the parson of Lappajärvi. The father had also travelled in Lapland as a researcher and collector of Sámi folklore. In addition to this, Jaakko Fellman cultivated and drained fields. August Fellman’s mother was Helena Augustina Tawaststjerna.

August Fellman’s education

August Fellman attended upper elementary school (yläalkeiskoulu) in Kuopio, after which he studied at the Helsinki Infantry Officer School (Helsingin jalkaväen junkkariopisto) and graduated as a second lieutenant in 1860. Fellman served in the army in the Finnish territory until the dissolution of the Swedish allotment system army, and resigned from the army as a staff captain in June 1868. Among the residents of Hollola, located close to Lahti, August Fellman was known as captain Fellman.

Ida Fellman

Ida Henrietta Klärich (née Klärich) was born in Helsinki in 1847. Her father was Franz Heinrich Andreas Klärich and her Swedish-born mother was Fredrika Wilhelmina Tollander. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Franz Klärich was a merchant and the second owner of Tollander & Klärich Tobaksfabrik. Ida Klärich had five siblings. August and Ida were married on 15 September 1866 and settled first in Kortesjärvi. Ida Fellman died in 1917.

Lapset istuvat junaradan varrella olevalla mäellä, josta avautuu näkymä vanhaan Lahteen.

Fellmans arrive in Lahti

The Fellman family moved to Lahti in 1868. Encouraged by his father-in-law, August Fellman bought Seppälä, i.e. the larger half of a riding stable farm in Lahti. The timing was good, as a decision to build a railroad to St. Petersburg via Lahti had been made during the famine year of 1867. After a large fire in the village of Lahti in the summer of 1877, August Fellman bought half of Marola, a house to be moved, and part of Sipilä riding stable farm, which was also to be moved. This way, he took over the whole of the original riding stables farm of Kartano.

Ihmisiä Lahden kartanon kuistilla pöydän ääressä.

Growing family

The Fellmans had three children while they were living in Lahti. Aina Augusta was born on 5 August 1868, August Lennart on 26 August 1871 and Arthur Jakob Andreas on 7 September 1873. The children went to elementary school in the Finnish-speaking Lahti, even though the Fellmans spoke Swedish at home. All three of them went to secondary school in Helsinki, as Lahden Yhteiskoulu was not established until 1896. Aina Augusta married Karl William Saurén, and they had four children. Lennart Fellman studied economics and Arthur medicine. Both boys later managed the Fellman enterprises.

Ihmisiä ulkoilmassa kahvipöytien äärellä.

Captain Fellman

August Fellman was a major landowner, a member of the assembly of the representatives of the estates and an industrial entrepreneur, whose steam-powered sawmill and sulphite mill were located on the shore of Lake Vesijärvi and fields reached all the way to the town of Lahti. Fellman maintained Lahden kansakoulu school and the local folk high school, and built a private railroad from Lake Vesijärvi via Lahti to the Valko Outport in Loviisa for industrial needs. He was the representative of peasants in the assembly of the representatives of the estates. Fellman was deported from the country between 1903 and 1904 after having convened a meeting at the manor to discuss constitutional resistance against the Russification measures.