100 stories from the hiking route

1927 – Society for Decorating and Tidying Aegviidu is formed

Information

Topic

Village life and society work

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.2867944

Longitude: 25.6213611

L-EST 97

x: 6573179.7
y: 592402.3

Location

Oandu-Aegviidu Hiking route

You can see the overgrown pool of the former bathing establishment by the Mustjõgi River when moving along the hiking route. The Society for Decorating and Tidying Aegviidu, formed in 1927, built a café, dancing area and a pool here. The pool was built based on the architect Mihkelson’s project and the bathing establishment was opened in 1933. A three-member band played here three times a week. Various sports events took place by the pool. A local summer beauty queen, king, prince and princess were elected every summer. Lemonade made in Aegviidu was sold here as well.

The bathing establishment was destroyed during the war, wooden remains of the building were used as firewood.
A more widespread domestic decoration movement began in Estonia in the 1930s. The Estonian Farm Decoration Association had been formed by 1935 with the goal to tidy up and decorate Estonian farms and their surroundings in order to make rural living more cultured and beautiful. The Head of State Päts ratified a programme for an extensive domestic decoration campaign in 1936. The exterior of almost all of our cities, town and villages were remarkably improved in an extraordinarily short amount of time. The domestic decoration undertaken before 1940 was outstanding in its extent and pace, as well as for being well thought out and keeping further goals in mind.

Sources: 
RMK Cultural Heritage Database
Vaan, L. 2005. Propagandatalitus Eesti Vabariigis autoritaarsel ajajärgul. Master’s thesis