Jokela Brick Factory

The Jokela brick factory began operations in 1874. It became the first large-scale enterprise in its field in Finland. Until the 1930s, the brick factory and its farm were the largest employers in Jokela. The brick factory area, including its clay extraction sites, spread over a wide area on both sides of the railway.

The Jokela brick factory and the industrial facilities that have grown up around it form a nationally valuable built cultural environment. The brick factory’s production building, brick kiln and kiln chimney were protected in 2000 under the Building Protection Act. The kiln of the brick factory, a 57-metre-long Hoffman-type structure completed in 1937–1938, is specifically mentioned as a protected site.

The brick factory underwent extensive renovations in the 1950s, but there was overproduction in the brick industry and prefabricated construction was gaining ground. The last bricks were fired in 1959, and in 1960 it was decided to shut down the factory. However, production was never restarted. In 1985, the municipality of Tuusula purchased the buildings and land of the Jokela Brick Factory, totalling approximately 124 hectares. Among other things, the Peltokaaren residential area was built on the former grounds of the brick factory.

The Tuusula Museum has kept the brick factory open during the summer Tuu Museum Weeks since 2019. In 2021, the brick factory saw the launch of Ravintola Tiilitehdas, a summer restaurant run by Jekku ry. 

You can read more about the history of the Jokela brick factory on the Virtuaali-Tuusula website.(opens in a new window, switch to another service)