Hämeenkylä Manor's History 

Hämeenkylä Manor traces its history back to 1500 century when three families owned the houses and held the land on which the Manor stands.

The first master of Hämeenkylä Manor was Admiral Bengt Juusten. Admiral Juusten who was responsible for the supply of material to an army was knighted in 1591 taking the family name Gyllenlood. Hämeenkylä Manor stayed in the family for 150 years.

After the family Gyllenlood, manor changed hands often. Owners included Nils Lindercreutz, Peter Lund, Karl Fredrik Riddamström and Gustaf Wilhelm Ladau.

Mr. Ladau bought the land in the beginning of 19th century but as he was one unfortunate individuals who undersigned the Anjala treaty in 1788 he got sentenced to death by hanging. He fled to Russia but returned to Hämeenkylä once the sentence was withdrawn. In order to raise the value and admiration Hämeenkylä Manor deserves Ladau began major construction and enlargement work asking his acquaintance architect Carl Ludvig Engel himself to design some of the beautiful buildings that still stand on Manor grounds today.

At the end of the 19th century the Manor was passed to Mr. Manström who was in the sawmill business. The sawmill burned and Mr. Manström got into financial trouble. At the time it was not acceptable that the owner of a Manor is poor nor in financial trouble. As a result he informed everyone that there were 125 rooftops requiring major reparation work. This way the selling of the property seemed more acceptable. The selling continued and manor changed hands relatively often.

The last private owner of the Manor was Mr. Pelin but also he was in the challenging sawmilling business. In order to survive financially he established a family company with his two sons. The other son sold his shares to Yrjö Ossian Riisla who was Tuko´s CEO at the time. Mr. Riisla suggested that all the fields surrounding the Manor should be drained. The result of this suggestion was that all other share owners were afraid that the costs will be extremely high. As a result they sold their shares and Manor passed to Tuko in its entirety. Now Tuko owned all the shares of the Manor. Tuko used the Manor and the land to various agricultural development projects for the next 50 years. Almost 300 acres of the total of 800 acres of land was cultivated.

In the beginning of 20th century Mr. Riisla believed that there might be gold in Manor lands but the only thing they found was vast amounts of sand and clay. In order to take best use of the findings Tuko constructed a brick factory nearby Hämeenkylä Manor where the clay could be used. The brick production started in the Olympic year of 1952 Business grew rapidly and the factory became the largest in Scandinavia.

Steps toward commercial use of the manor were taken in 1964 when Hämeenkylä Ltd. was established and TUKO converted parts of the byre to support the selling of vegetables and other fresh product.

In 1959 Tuko started to use the premises for training and still in the beginning of the 60´s there were 100 cows in the byre. As it was difficult to find qualified personnel to the byre, Tuko shut it down in 1966 and converted it into a modern training centre. In summer 1966 the unique training centre where new building was attached to an old empire style manor building opened its doors. Design followed the footpath of the Louisiana museum in Copenhagen.

1973 The city of Vantaa bought 690 acres, hence the majority, of the land surrounding the Manor. Today the Manor covers 40 acres of land.

1991 a large scale renovation work was complete and the year after Polarkesti started the hotel and conference operations in the Manor.

1998 Polarkesti change its name to Sodexo who operates the Manor today Making every day a better day.

Today, the proud owner of the beautiful Hämeenkylä Manor is Varma corporation and the operator is Sodexo.

Source: Helsingin pitäjä- vuosikirja 1974 - 1975