This booklet represents high level nostalgia. The
three stamps feature memorable and beloved buildings all to be found in
Mariehamn in past times. Former town architect Folke Wickstrom has drawn the
motifs.
1. The first stamp
shows the Badhotellet (spa hotel).
Launched as a spa resort at the end of the 1800s, Mariehamn was to become one
of the most modern resorts in Europe. At the turn of the 20th century, the
establishment was at its largest with facilities for hot baths and swimming, a
restaurant with assembly room, a medical centre, a gymnasium, a doctor's house
and a spa hotel. The end of the 1914 season also saw the end of the spa era as
World War I broke out. The hotel burnt down to the ground in February 1916,
probably due to an overheated heater.
2. Originally, Societetshuset (a club house generally
known as Socis) was a school building that was dismantled and moved to
Mariehamn in 1870. From the start, the building served as a hotel, town hall
and restaurant. During Socis' more than 100 years of existence it had several
periods of golden days and many different owners. Regardless of many protests,
the demolition of Socis was carried through in June 1975, the then town
architect and current stamp artist Folke Wickstrom being one of the protesters.
3. Miramar was erected in 1890 as a summer
house for Nicolai Nystrom, son-in-law of Nicolai Sittkoff, a well-known
tradesman in Aland. Commandeered by soldiers during both World Wars, first by
the Russians and later by the Finns, Miramar was turned into a soldiers'
gambling home. In the 1930s, the house served as a dance palace and meeting
place and was later to become a restaurant. Inspections performed by the
authorities found inadequate fire security as well as spa and sanitary defects,
and the house was demolished in October 1973.
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