The Archive

The archive building was constructed in 1882 to house the records of the children’s home. It is an octagonal building made from hand-moulded red and yellow brick. To protect it from fire, it was built separately on exposed rock and had neither heating nor lighting.
The building was restored in 1996 and today contains 55 metres of archival material, including registers from the children’s home and every pupil application.

The documents reveal where the boys came from, their fathers’ occupations and the professions the boys entered after leaving school.
Applications had to include certificates from a clergyman and the child’s teacher, guaranteeing that the boy had sufficient academic ability. The archive also contains spa registers recording guests during the resort’s heyday, including royal visitors such as Karl XIII, Crown Prince Karl Johan and Queen Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta.

Read about the boy Sven Albert Nordstrom

Children sometimes became temporarily parentless, as in this case.
The application for Sven Albert Nordstrom from Marstrand reads:

“The goldsmith J. E. Nordstrom of Marstrand, arrested and convicted of arson, and his wife Johanna Carolina Olsson have the children Victor, Ingeborg, Sven Albert and Wahlborg, all of whom are entirely destitute and without means following their parents’ misfortune. Admission to Gustafsberg Children’s Home is sought for their son Sven Albert Wilhelm, born in 1861 and vaccinated. This distressing case is placed before the benevolence of the Board, with a request that it approve the application for this well-behaved boy if possible.

Certified in Marstrand, 9 December 1869

P. O. Landberg”

After the children’s guardian, doctor and parish priest in Marstrand certified that the boy was suitable for admission, Sven Albert Nordstrom entered Gustafsberg Children’s Home as boy number 465 on 18 July 1871.

Curious readers can learn more about the 1869 arson in Marstrand: