Vangstua - in glass and frame

When you have driven the E18 between Elvestad and Knapstad (Spydeberg), you may have seen that there is a house inside a greenhouse. This is Vangstua. Officially opened on 9 September 2020.

Vangstua has a unique history - from a red painted house with tanners, shoemakers and workers in Skaug swingen, to an art project in front of the parlament in Oslo and now in glass and frame at the Jaren picnic area, the Hydro Texaco station at the E18, Spydeberg.

Twice the house was threatened with demolition, twice it was saved. Now it has come in glass and well preserved for posterity.

Many people have had many opinions about the house. This is cultural preservation and not an art project. The construction must withstand weather and wind for many years.
Vangstua shines a spotlight on cultural heritage, on cultural buildings that have disappeared, such as workers' housing and farmhouses. Today there are almost none left.

It has been 40-50 years since people last lived here. The house originally stood in the old Hobøl municipality on the then E18, formerly Riksvei 6 - the old main road between Oslo and Stockholm.

The artist Marianne Heske took over the house from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and prevented it from being demolished when a new road was to be built. Together with the Culture Agency in Oslo municipality, Vangstua was moved to Eidsvolls place in front of the parlament building in October 2015. The art project attracted great interest at home and abroad, 150,000 visitors and more saw and photographed it. Articles were written and prizes were won. It was voted "the year's best individual work" and was awarded first place among "the year's ten best art events". "House of Commons" was a success.

After the time at the Parlament, Vangstua was again ready for renovation, but several people wanted the house back to Hobøl. Local sponsors and cultural heritage actors contributed. Oslo municipality was responsible for the house being removed. Hobøl Historielag was given the responsibility and rights to take care of the house for posterity, which was approved by the artist. The house was transported to Hobøl, and stored for 4 years. Funding and land were obtained, drawn, calculated and registered for construction. The work of art had once again become cultural heritage worthy of preservation, which must be documented and passed on to future generations.

Who has lived in the house?

In 1865, Vangstua and Gamlestua are called Svingen plass. At Vang lived Kristian Larsen (36) from Kråkstad, husband and shoemaker. He lived with his wife Andrine (25) and a 2-year-old orphan. They were the first known residents of Vanghuset. Kristian Larsen was a farmer without land, and lived by repairing and making shoes and boots for people on the farm. Payment was food and accommodation. Kristian probably also wandered from farm to farm as a shoemaker.

Vangstua was a homestead under Skaug Østre. Skaug østre became a resting place in the 1860s and a tannery in the early 1880s. The first owner was Christian Mathisen (b.1815) and his wife Mathea Hansdatter.

In 1881 tanner Anton Christiansen Skjolden moved with his family into "Skaugshvile". He came from the Bilidt and Vestre Løken tanneries in Askim. After 2 years, he buys the farm and the tannery, but this became too demanding, and they moved to Kristiania in 1885. Everything was sold to master tanner Hans Thoresen from Spydeberg. Here he had been a tanner since 1865. Son Ole (b.1866) and wife Maria take over the farm and the tannery in 1903. He buys the farm Høyden and additional land and gets a farm of 65 acres. Vangstua was still a homestead under Skaug ostre. When Ole dies in 1930, his widow Maria is responsible for running the farm with the homesteads, rest room and tannery. She hands over everything as an inheritance to her daughters, Rakel and Martha, in 1943.

In 1910, tanner friend Alfred Andersen (b. 1850 in Sweden) and his wife Laura (b. 1860 in Sweden) live with their sons Ole and Henrik in Vang husmannsstue. On the 2nd floor, there is still a shoemaker's workshop and master shoemaker and widower Anton Kaspersen (b.1848 Hobøl) lives here. Alfred Andersen came to the Skaugrom tannery in Enebakk in the 1880s and married Laura here. The tannery was closed down and tanner friend Alfred came to Skaug in 1896. Eventually they moved into Vangstua and lived here until 1915, when they moved into Gamlestua.

The son Alfred Vilhelm (b. 1893) lived and worked on the farm and was a tanner's friend. He marries Helene Sofie in 1915 and lives in Vangstua with 3 children. Tanner Vilhelm Andersen takes over the tannery in 1925 for NOK 3,000. But times were bad and in 1931 the tannery business ceased. After their father Alfred's death in 1930, they moved into Gamlestua.

Husmannsplassen Vang was separated in 1933. The buyer was shoemaker and husbandman Ludvig Johnsrud. He paid NOK 3,000 for the living room. In 1926 he married Hulda Thoresen Skaug, Maria's sister-in-law. They live in Vangstua on the 2nd floor and have a shoemaker's workshop and apartment here. Ludvig came from the Johnsrud homestead, Skjolden farm in Hobøl. He was a shoemaker until his death in 1951. Vang was then returned to Skaug østre.

Rudolf and Else Johannessen with two children rented the 1st floor of Vangstua from 1948 to 1953. Rudolf drove a Chevrolet truck and compressor for the road service.

The son of tanner Vilhelm Andersen, Håkon, lived in Vang with his family