A Guide to the Best of Southern California : Excursions : Finishing School
When Finns come to town, their No. 1 tourist destination isn’t Disneyland; it’s the Finnish Folk Art Museum in pasadena. Located on the pastoral grounds of the Pasadena Historical Society and Museum, this tupa (smoke cabin) re-creation includes a functioning sauna. Never mind that the Memphis School interior is d la Ostrobothnia Province, where Finnish architecture reached its pinnacle early in the 19th Century.
The fragrance of birch predominates. Cooking utensils, dishes, knapsacks and even slippers are made of the wood. Cupboards for sour milk cultivation and carved wedding chairs, cheese baking boards and a cozy double-decker bed for sons and farmhands bespeak an epic era in Finnish history. Founded by Yuri Paloheimo, once Finnish consul to the Southwestern United States, the farmhouse is a tribute to putting form into function.
Finnish Folk Art Museum, Pasadena Historical Society and Museum, 470 W. Walnut St., Pasadena; (818) 577-1660.
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