9th Finglish trip October 2009 #3 At 15 W126th Street in Harlem in New York City stands a grey building, the Pilgrim Cathedral of Harlem. Before it was the Työn Temppeli - Labor Temple, it was built by Finnish American communists in the 1920s. In Harlem there was already the 5th Avenue Hall which was owned by the Finnish American socialist chapter - osasto. The communists, after the Second Schism of the Finnish American socialists, left the 5th Avenue Hall and started to buil

9th Finglish trip October 2009 #2 Duke Devlin, though not a Finn, is an interesting person. In the Summer of 1969 he hitchhiked up to Bethel, N.Y. and arrived a couple of days before the Woodstock festival with fifty cents in his pocket. He got a job at a foodstand making hotdogs and hamburgers during the Woodstock event. Woodstock was a music festival held on a dairy farm in the Catskill Mountains, northwest of New York City, between August 15–18, 1969, which attracted an au

7th Finglish trip October 2008 #44 Dave and Fred Orrik were born into an Estonian Finnish family, their father was Estonian and their mother was Finnish. Grandparents came from Ostrobothnia to Massachusetts. Mother Aina was born in Gardner, Massachusetts. Family moved to New York City and Dave and Fred were born in Bronx, New York. During summers their father sent the boys to hike in the National Park near their mothers birthplace in Gardner, Massachusetts. In the Bronx they

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #38 June Lahti’s father came from Kivijärvi to Michigan with his parents at the age of two. Her mother was born into a Finnish immigrant family in America. June went to work in a bank in New York City at the age of 18. Her young husband Heikki did not want to let her into the city alone and so the couple moved to the corner of 2nd Avenue and 123rd Street in Harlem. Many Finns lived there at the time. At the 5th Avenue Hall in Harlem, they were

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #37 Aino Backstrand was born in Harlem Finntown in 1921. Her mother was from Honkajoki and her father was from Alajoki. In her childhood she lived with her mother for 14 years in three different Finnish rooming houses around Harlem Finntown. Aino´s mother worked as a maid. Aino´s father had moved back to Finland. Aino married Elis Backstrand in 1943 in New York City. Elis was born in Finland, he came to the US at the age of 17. After working

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #36 Tuula Malmi and Leena Freyer live in the old Finnish Co-op apartment house Varma in the Bronx, New York City. Tuula Malmi runs a catering business out of her house in the Bronx year-round. She is a master of traditional Finnish cuisine. Tuula was also the head chef at the New York Estonian House for more than twenty years. Leena Freyer is the president of the Varma Cooperative Home Corporation. Varma Cooperative Homes was started by a Finn

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #35 Anna-Liisa was born in 1928 in Pori, Finland. Anna-Liisa lived with her aunts after her parents got divorced when she was six years old. During the Winter War in 1940 as a teenager Anna-Liisa was rescued by the Swedish Red Cross first to Sweden and eventually to Norway to live with her relatives. A day before Hitler occupied Norway in April 1940 Anna-Liisa moved to her aunt to New York City. She started to work as a maid in Brooklyn. Duri

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #28 Leena Kuivanen was 21 years old when she told her parents she would like to move to Australia. Instead of Australia she moved to New York City. Leena started to work as a nanny in a family with two homes, one in Pleasantville, in Upper New York and one in Manhattan, near Columbia University. At the age of 32, Leena got her Master of Social Work from the New York University Evening School. She worked as a social worker until 2004 before ret

7th Finglish trip September 2008 #24 Pentti Palonen came from Finland to the Unites States in 1946 to study in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Marja-Liisa was born in Kotka in Southern Finland. In 1973 Pentti started to work as a pastor at the Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brooklyn. The name of the church had historical significance to Finns because a church of that name was built in Philadelphia Pennsylvania by Swedes and Finns in the year 1700. The religious work amo

7th Finglish trip August 2008 #22 Mauno and Anja Laurila met in the mid-1950s in Harlem in New York City. They now spend their summers in Voluntown, Connecticut and the winters in Florida. Originally from Lahti, South Finland, Anja came to America to work in domestic service. She was emplopyed by John D. Rockefeller Jr., the only son of John Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. At the time, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the richest men in the United States and the w

7th Finglish trip August 2008 #18 Owen Christensen´s mother Helmi came to US from Ilmajoki in 1918. She met her Danish-born husband in New York City. Owen was born during a shortage in Bronx. Owen is a war veteran and G.I. Bill made his studies possible. He received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston Massachusetts. By 1956, roughly 8.8 million veterans had used the G.I. Bill education benefits Dr. Owen Christensen is an internist in Gardner,

5th Finglish trip July 2007 #35 Arthur U. Kahkonen (1913-2008) was born in the town of Plummer, Minnesota, to the late August and Kaisa (Maatta) Kahkonen. Orphaned at the age of 9, he was taken in by his mother's sisters, who had emigrated from Finland at the same time as his parents. By age 16 he struck out on his own, making a living during the Great Depression at various trades, such as farming with his brother in Van Etten, NY and lumberjacking in Soviet Karelia. Back fro

5th Finglish trip July 2007 #31 Lomala (”Vacation Place”) was founded in the 1920s by Finnish tailors, who wanted a summer vacation site outside New York City. Some Finnish-American families still live here, and there is a small building called the Lomala Civic Center with a good size kitchen, where Finnish parties are held, which is also available for rental for private parties. Lomala is located in Hopewell Junction 70 miles north from New York City. Paavo or Paul Lampi was

3rd Finglish trip March 2006 #2 The former reception terminal for European immigrants in the Port of New York has been converted into a museum. The last ship docked here in 1924. Other routes to North America included Halifax, Canada. The Ellis Island museum has collected a great deal of information on the immigrants that passed through the island. The names of some 700,000 people are found on its Wall of Honor. Only memories remain of the Finntown in New York’s Harlem, where