For years I’ve had a photo of myself standing near the villa at Eläintarhantie 14 that I’ve wanted to send in to the people responsible for its restoration. The experiences over the years of brining people together over the story of an abandoned villa meant that more than just I had a history with the location.
A couple months ago I wrote a letter and sent the photo. Without an associated name or title, I addressed the envelope simply to “office” at Eläintarhantie 14.
It was within the first few weeks of the year 1998 that I discovered Eläintarhantie 14. I’d awakened early one morning and decided to go for a walk and I took the long way into the center – around Töölonlahti, through Linnunlaulu and across the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks.
I had taken this route into the center dozens of times and seemingly passed the villa without noticing it. Oddly enough, however, I noticed it for the first time that early morning. I became fascinated with the villa, which at the time was still in a state of disrepair. At the city archives I was able to view the blueprints for the building and given information about original owner as well as a copy of an article that had appeared years earlier in a book that had been written about the area.
When a friend accompanied me to Helsinki in February of 1998 he snapped this picture of me. It was late in the afternoon with not nearly enough light to have considered basic photography, but when we arrived at the villa the clouds parted just long enough to give us the light needed to capture a few photographs. This one has always been my favorite.
I’d written letters to friends telling them about the villa that I discovered. In the summer of 1998 I discovered that the city of Helsinki was in the process of restoring the villa. In 2002 I returned and was delighted to have had the opportunity to view the restoration work.
Early this year, ten years after having discovered the villa, I received an e-mail from someone in South Africa. He introduced himself and stated that while I didn’t know him, we had a mutual friend. He went on to say that during a recent visit to Helsinki he remembered having been shown a letter I had written and set out to find the villa. Based upon his recollection, he pieced together what he could remember and indeed, he had found it.
Shocked to have read what I had I began to realize how the villa at Eläintarhantie 14 has connected so many people in my life. Friends, as well as people I’d never met, from around the world still recall the story of the day I discovered this villa. It was just the inspiration that I needed.
Just a month ago I completed the manuscript for a book that looks at my twenty-five years of travel to and from Finland. Oddly enough, when I showed this picture to the man who offered to design the book’s cover, a man I’d never met, he immediately felt that it should be part of it. Yet again, the villa brought together two strangers.
I’ve been meaning to send you this photograph for years. There is a story about the history of this villa and it seems that I too, am a part of that history. Its important that you have a copy of this photograph.
Last week I received a large envelope in the mail that had been addressed by hand and had no return address. It was post marked from Finland. Inside I found a letter from the City of Helsinki Cultural Office and a book. The book is, itself, historical documentation of the villa and it’s original owners. The letter invites me to tour the villa whenever I return to Helsinki and was written by the woman who has taken care of the facility since 2000, when the restoration work began.
Visit it on the web at www.elaintarhanhuvila.fi
