"It was our common effort..."

One of the last Finnish owned community halls in Canada, House of Finland in Toronto, observed its 25th anniversary in late September. A full house of former House activists had gathered for an evening of joint recollections and nostalgia.

Suomi-talo is a bundle of memories among its friends.
Mrs Tiina Tulikorpi, the marketing and pr director at Nygård International recalled the atmosphere there during the Caravans.

– There was even rural style hay all over the stage, she said.

Aimo Heikurinen was usually the first in the morning and the last in the evening, be Caravan season or not. Here he listens to the birthday song. Mr Heikurinen is now 70.

Even though the long time president and current honarary chairman Aimo Heikurinen was the most respected guest, the start of the evening was probably Mrs Lea Pitkänen, currently of London, Ontario. In her greeting she gave vivid insight into the enthusiasm of the mid 80s. She also raised the question, why Finnish community activities had come to a low point now. The response of the audience was an intense silence.

Financially, Suomi-talo is well in the black. There are no vacant business premises, lease holders have been found for all floors of the building. The main auditorium, leased to a dance school, is available for occasional users during the weekend. However, many Finnish events of late have been arranged at the Estonian, Latvian or Armenian centres. Organizers put the blame on the lack of sufficient parking space at the Main Street location, among others. As for public transport, the House of Finland is close to the Main Street TTC station. But under the still prevailing attitudes that is not much of an asset.

Purchased originally for 219 000 Canadian dollars, the value of the property is now between 3,5 and 4 million. One of the future options now is to sell the house and to build an apartment building with special service amenities for Finnish seniors. Talking to Vapaa Sana the current president of the Finn-Centre Ltd Kauko Leppälä said no decisions had been taken though, but the matter was open for discussion.
During the festive evening most recollections were associated to the role of Suomi Talo as the Helsinki Pavilion during the Festival Caravan in the 90s.
Festival Caravan was founded in 1969 by Ukrainian Canadian Zena Kossar, a native of Arran, Saskatchewan. In the 90s there were still over 30 ethnic halls participating in the event.

With the purchase of a 20 dollar ticket the public could visit all the halls, for entertainment and ethnic culinary specialties. The name Helsinki Pavilion can still be seen at the front of the Suomi-talo, even though the event is long gone.

Major pooling of resources could not be done

The 25th anniversary of the Finland House (276 Main Street) brought back memories of successful events and activities, but also the fact that the project had to accept less that it had hoped for.

A key feature in the history of that Finnish achievement is the fact that the project could have been much bigger and better, if the Finnish organizations here in Toronto could have been able to join forces. But that was largely impossible.
The House of Finland Society was established in 1966. There had been similar ventures as early as the mid 50s.

Towards the end of the sixties the society started looking for houses that would be available to the Finns. They included at least the Don Hall of the Finnish Organization, A Canada Tire building, a synagogue on St. Clair, The Beaver Curling Club on Jane and a Scarborough Utilities building in the Birchmont Park area. And the option of having a building designed and built was considered as well.
The Finnish Social Club (established in 1932) had decided to sell its Huron Hall in 1967 and was looking for new premises. The House of Finland project had counted on the Social Club becoming a key source of financing. But the FSC bought a house in Scarbourough (on Manville Avenue) and hired an architect to plan its renovation. That was a major blow to the House of Finland plan. But the project was able to stay alive. In 1968 most of its members (150 people) went to review a Jewish synagogue on St Clair West, but in the end agreement on the transcation could not be reached with the owners.

The real formative years for the project were, however, the early 80s. Leaving churches aside, the largest and perhaps most presentable Finnish building was the home of the Finnish Organization of Canada, Don Hall, on Broadview. The new Finnish Social Club building in Scarborough was also an asset, and our publishing company, Vapaa Sana Press, owned a building at 400 Queen Street West, housing both the editorial offices and a printing press. There were other valuable properties as well.

Combining at least most of that could create a base for everything Finnish in Toronto for decades. The Finnish Consulate in Toronto took up an unofficial role as a catalyst in trying to help the Finns to work together, in the early 80s.

The Finnish foreign service official handling consular services in Toronto got in touch with major players of the Finnish scene in an effort to form a working group to ease co-operation and to create, perhaps, a joint vision of the future.

The outcome was, however, unbelievable in its absurdity. The idea of pooling Finnish resources and working together over political lines created anxiety, particularly in circles that in today’s terms could be called “right wing”. The situation escalated to the extent that a complaint was filed with the Embassy in Ottawa that the local consulate was trying to do something which was not its business. That was the end of any efforts from Finland to bring the Toronto Finns together.

In the end, the Suomi-talo projectpurchased its present building on Main Street, at a very economical prise, 219 thousand dollars. The building was in bad condition and never took off as a general Finnish location.

What happened to the rest of the properties then?
Don Hall was sold in 1983 and was converted into an apartment building.

The Finnish Social Club stayed in its Scarborough house until 2002, when it was sold.

Vapaa Sana Press sold its building on Queen West in the mid80s and moved to an industrial complex in Scarborough, a somewhat distant location. There Vapaa Sana invested in state of the art editorial officies, customer service and even a corporate style board room. In 2002 the company’s financial situation had worsened to the extent though that it chose to become a tenant at the Osuuspankki building, and soon sold its property.