Ebeneser - House for Children
Ebeneser House is a culturally and historically significant building for Finnish early childhood education. The reliefs on the facade and the front garden are reminders of the house's original purpose. At the same time, the Ebeneser house contains stories about the history of the Harju area and its different stages. The Kindergarten Museum locates at the Ebeneser house.
The Ebeneser House construction started on May 22nd 1907, and the opening ceremony of the house was in December 1908. The building, officially called Ebeneser Home, was the first to be completed on the site plan of Helsinginkatu. Unlike the other houses, it is not attached to the street line but stands freely in its yard. The Ebeneser House stands out among the surrounding buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1900, an association called "Eget hem för Sörnäs folkbarnträdgård – Oma koti Sörnäisten kansanlastentarhalle" was established to collect building fund for the house. In 1906, the association turned to the architect Wivi Lönn, asking her to draw blueprints for a building with a space for a kindergarten, kindergarten teacher seminar and children's home.
Wivi Lönn graduated as an architect from the Polytechnic College in 1896. She was a skilled architect of school facilities who knew how to combine beauty with practicality. Lönn was the first Finnish female architect who had her own architectural office.
The architectural style of the Ebeneser house is a simple later Art Nouveau. In a prominent place on the main facade is the name of the building, Ebeneser, with two seashells attached to the Art Nouveau style letters as a decorative motif. The seashell symbolizes fertility, growth and continuity and the circuit of time. The topmost windows of the avant-corps show reliefs depicting children playing and working. The other windows on the facade and the balcony on the Harjukatu side have more restrained stylized plant and ornament reliefs. The facade decorations remind us of the original function and spirit of the house.
The street facade of the house has a protected site plan.
The Ebeneser House after its completion in 1908. The Kindergarten Museum's Photography Collection
Organizations in the Ebeneser House
In addition to the Ebeneser Foundation and the Kindergarten Museum, the Central Helsinki Music Institute and the early childhood education (ECEC) center Ebeneser of the city of Helsinki also operate in the Ebeneser house. The organizations of the house organize events and develop projects related to early childhood education in cooperation with different actors in the fields of art and culture.
The ECEC center Ebeneser is on the first floor of the building. The ECEC centre and the museum collaborate on various projects, museum pedagogy and contemporary documentation of early childhood education. You can get to know the ECEC center Ebeneser from here (the website is in Finnish).
The Central Helsinki Music Institute has operated in the building since 2009. Musicians and future musicians have their space on the second and fourth floors. The music institute and the museum cooperate in organizing programs, especially for the neighborhood festivals Kallio kukkii and Kallio kipinöi. You can get to know the Central Helsinki Music Institute from here (the website is in Finnish).
