Mansion on Alexei Tolstoy Street The reader may be interested in a small digression from the topic, which I would like to allow myself in connection with the mentioned negotiations. For more than half a century, in the mansion of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Alexei Tolstoy Street,

This idea had already been picked up by Yakov Rekk, who headed the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company in 1898.
And so an old estate was bought on Povarskaya and in 1903, according to the design of Lev Nikolaevich, they began to build two mansions, between Skaryatinsky and Skatertny lanes. M.V. Nashchokina suggests that Kekushev began making designs for these mansions for Mamontov.
In 1904, the mansions were already built and ready for occupancy.

This is how this place was from 1904 to 1915, when, according to some sources, the architect Motylev rebuilt the facades of the first mansion closest to us in the neoclassical style and completely killed, so to speak, the entire Ponizovsky house.
And before that it was a corner of pure Franco-Belgian modernism in Moscow. In my opinion, an unrealistically beautiful quarter...

Lev Kekushev was considered by his contemporaries to be the most brilliant artist of the European movement, surpassing even Franz Schechtel. I agree with them. Shekhtel is a brilliant architect, decorator, and graphic artist. He built theatrical sets, grandiose ones of course, from his mansions. And Kekushev thought in terms of volumes, techniques, and categories of modernity. Although in history he was much less fortunate. Of all his works, crumbs remain.

A brilliant polymath, a connoisseur of world art, an excellent draftsman and a master of historical and architectural stylizations, Kekushev was the king of outrageousness. For the manufacturer Grachev, he built a villa in Khovrin - a variation on the theme of the casino in Monte Carlo, built by the Frenchman Charles Garnier. He gave his own house in Glazovsky Lane the features of the Brussels Hotel Tassel - the brainchild of Victor Horta, the founder of Belgian Art Nouveau.

But let's return to the mansion, whose appearance has hardly changed since 1904.


The complex volumetric composition of the house, characterized by the solidity of intersecting volumes, occupies the corner of the site and thus forms the facade of both Povarskaya Street and Skaryatinsky Lane. Kekushev always created complex volumes for mansions. He did not build boxes, which he then simply finished in the Art Nouveau style.



This is the basic principle from inside to outside, when the interior spaces and their layout forced a more dynamic construction of the facades and volumes of the external architectural composition of the house.
Building plans lost the simplicity of geometric constructions and became complex, multi-figured, reflecting the internal dynamics of volumes.
Modernism contrasts the simplicity and harmonious transparency of the forms of classical architecture with complex figurativeness.
Here, of course, it should also be noted that Art Nouveau used the most advanced materials and technologies in construction. The invention of reinforced concrete, the plastic properties of which helped create such light and fluid lines characteristic of the Art Nouveau style. It created the image of a flexible and durable, elastic and elastic, pliable and rigid material, which made it possible to cover vast spaces, withstand enormous loads, create large forms, flexible joints, light airy structures, without fluttering decorations and supports. Reinforced concrete significantly lightened the structure and at the same time began to visibly show its work.



Among Kekushev’s works, this mansion occupies a special place due to the variety of elements of its external and internal decorative decoration.

The center of the composition from Povarskaya Street on the façade is a three-part window on the second floor


united by an arched niche, above the archivolt of which there is a panel depicting figures of naked putti engaged in various activities in the field of art, covered with a large arched canopy.



Before the revolution, this canopy was still topped with a sculpture


the goddess Aurora scattering flowers is a symbol of joy and prosperity. At her feet little putti were playing around, one of which, as usual, was blowing soap bubbles, symbolizing the transience of life. But in the century that has passed since the building was built, Aurora has disappeared.

And the play of these different volumes and decor seemed to flow from top to bottom like such a powerful stream of water...



These large drops from below support the panels. A flowing treatment of a kind of “desudeporte” of an archivolt above the window... And then this wave breaks on a decorative balcony


fancifully and richly decorated with already ripe poppy heads and acanthus leaves



wonderful window frames, which were never repeated by Kekushev.
It must be said that there is no such common Kekushev detail on the binding as a flowing drop. Because there is a powerful flow of ornament and lines, and on the windows they would be superfluous.
It should also be noted that the window joinery was made by Kekushev from very high-quality larch material and they have not rotted for more than 100 years.



the balcony is supported or flowed down from it by 4 more flowing brackets and flows to the rhythm of the windows with rounded corners and the frames of the window portals flowing down..



the window sills end in a fringe of the same wavy vertical trim as the archivolt above the upper window. And all this makes this composition unusually stylish and attractive to smooth out. And if you stop and start looking at the house, it’s impossible to take your eyes off... Because one detail flows into another, but at the same time it all looks very whole and not fragmented.

Here I will make a slight digression and quote clever statements about the curved lines of modernity - The famous line of modernity, which received its name in architecture after the Belgian architect who popularized it - the “Orta line” - was a consequence of overcoming Euclid’s geometry in mathematics in the 19th century.
Euclidean space, the construction of which was based on straight lines, was in fact an idealization, the result of abstraction from real space.
Real space is defined by a curve, not a straight line.



In the 19th century Gaussian geometry appears, capable of describing curvature, which opposed itself to Euclidean as a more complex system. Therefore, the dominant line of modernity is a curved, “serpentine” line - lively, energetic, winding, dancing. In Art Nouveau iconography it was associated with a sea wave, the flight of drapery in a dance or the lashing blow of a whip; in ornaments it was associated with climbing vegetation or the web of a fence.



On the right is the harmonious semicircular volume of the winter garden. With almost continuous glazing for maximum use of sunlight.



Moreover, the glass is located at an angle.
They were all poisoned. Also a unique invention of modernity.
Now every year the number of etched glasses here is decreasing.


The spaces between the windows are decorated with peculiar semi-columns-pilasters along which amazingly graceful ornament flows. Like a wreath of chestnut leaves on the capital, then the trunk of a thin dandelion and the most elegant “spout” of the base. But it will not completely drain, because the corners of the wreaths and the ornament from below seem to cling to the sides of the semi-column and stop this rapid movement.
All this is supported by window sill rosettes, the same as those under the central balcony.

Above it all rises an English-style chimney


Kekushev made a lion mask on it. Your "signature". It was lost over time.
And when the mansion was restored, they placed there the same newt flower as on the other side.


On the side above the windows there is an ornament of three white flat stripes with bee or wasp nests.



it’s like notes and it seems the cheerful music is encrypted in this ornament


And a decorative, as it were, keystone, with a surprisingly elegant viscous ornament.
He is so blissful and calm that you involuntarily stop your gaze on him.

It was very surprising and symbolic that the architect placed my favorite Lorelei in different corners of the building.


Lorelei on the corner of Skaryatinsky and Povarskaya meets the dawn. She has her eyes open. The light falls on it in the first half of the day.

And Lorelei from the back facade with her eyes down - the sun is setting - night is coming

Amazing and back facade of the house





The rear facade is already more austere - this is a more private part of the building.
A massive front door is like the entrance to a castle, powerful protection from adversity and misfortune.

Unfortunately, I do not have photographs of the stables and services with the amazing horse above the gate. The staircase, which overlooks the courtyard, had a stained glass window that was amazingly preserved
Thanks to SALON magazine

The main staircase has a sculptural Kekushevka lion railing decor.

This stained glass window was covered up and opened at one's own risk by the previous New Zealand Ambassador.

In general, of course, we need to thank him not only for the restoration and preservation of this miracle of modernity, but also for popularizing it. Because M. Nashchokina’s book about this mansion was published with his direct participation.

hall..

glass of the winter garden from the inside..

Here is the horse over the stable or garage...

I can’t stop, I want to look and look at it.
Well, isn’t this newt charming, holding a garland of flowers with its paws and mouth - a symbol of well-being.

In general, modern artists and architects came up with the idea of ​​​​transforming the surrounding world through beauty.
This mansion of the great Moscow Art Nouveau architect Lev Nikolaevich Kekushev fully meets this idea. Every stroke, every detail is so beautiful that the world around seems more beautiful and better, and people cannot be evil, selfish and bloodthirsty.
Rudeness and money-grubbing have no place next to such perfection of beauty.

Beauty will save the world.

And yes, I know that the horizon is blocked, the quality of the photo is not so good. But we show what we have.
By the way, I’ve been collecting photos for three years to put them together for this post.
This is the embassy - it was forbidden to take photographs.

UPS/ Here is a rather large photo of the horse they gave me



Thanks a lot to the author of the photo :)

st. Prechistenka, 28

The Prechistenka area has always been considered aristocratic, but at the beginning of the twentieth century, estate development began to be replaced by apartment buildings, giving the street a new high-rise scale. Estate Moscow was becoming a thing of the past, and was being replaced by the world of capital. One of the unassuming Prechistenka estates with a two-story house from the early 19th century was bought in 1903 by the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company, which was led by a major banker and entrepreneur Yakov Andreevich Rekk. All the old buildings were immediately demolished, and the architect Lev Kekushev received an order to design and build a huge, by the standards of that time, five- (and in some places six-) storey apartment building. By the time construction work was completed in 1906, Recca was replaced at the head of the company by I.P. Isakov, who acquired the house as his own.

This is one of the most famous Moscow buildings in the Art Nouveau style: the lines of the facade are constantly arching, forming a complex wave-shaped roof, bay windows, window niches and semicircular openwork balconies. The sculptural decor completes the impression - modest curls around the windows turn on the top floor into a continuous relief ornament from which women’s heads protrude. In the center of the upper floor there are two female sculptures - allegories of Enlightenment and Construction. Another characteristic feature of Art Nouveau is window frames with smoothly curved lines. Pay attention to the preserved handle of the front door - style, manifested in every detail, turns this utilitarian detail into an elegant curl and a valuable work of art in itself.

Mansion of O. A. Liszt - N. K. Koussevitzkaya
Glazovsky lane, 8

It is believed that this house is one of the first Moscow mansions that can be clearly attributed to the Art Nouveau style. Kekushev built it in 1898 - 1899. seemingly for himself, but already in 1900 he sold it to Otto Adolfovich List, the nephew and son-in-law of a famous Moscow entrepreneur. Later, in the 1910s, the owner became Natalia Koussevitzkaya, née Ushkova, the daughter of a Moscow millionaire merchant, music lover and honorary director of the Philharmonic Society and the wife of the brilliant double bassist and conductor Sergei Koussevitzky. Bright creative personalities, obviously, were close to the same extraordinary architecture.

The construction was a kind of experiment for Kekushev - both creative and economic. Unlike the large house-building companies, he did not have the means to undertake a long-term program of building opulent houses for sale, so he tried to build and sell one fully finished mansion. Not constrained by a specific order, he was able to fully express his imagination.

The unusual asymmetrical arrangement of the building's volumes made the overall composition lively and varied - this innovative technique will appear in Kekushev's next buildings, especially boldly in the architect's house on Ostozhenka. Large stone masonry on the ground floor, unusual shapes of window openings and their wide frames, the use of a grotesque thick small column with a lush floral capital - these are the characteristic, purely Kekushev techniques that were all together first used by the architect in this particular mansion. At the same time, all the details - from the metal column capital to the mosaic panels - are distinguished by their subtlety and grace of execution. By the way, the architect used mosaics - a frieze with the image of snowdrops between the floors, a panel with the inhabitants of the river bottom above the entrance - only in this building; this decorative technique does not appear in his works anymore.

It is interesting that some elements of the building resemble the handwriting of the Belgian architect Victor Horta, the founder of the Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau - this version of Art Nouveau was closest to Kekushev. Look at the cornice under the roof visor on thin, pencil-drawn metal brackets, similar to those found in the buildings of the famous Belgian. For this light element, different from traditional stone cornices, the architect was especially praised in the press and in professional circles of the time, and was even imitated in other Moscow buildings.

Apartment house of A. F. and N. F. Bocharovs
Gogolevsky Blvd., 21

The further route lies along the boulevards, past a spectacular four-story apartment building that belonged to the merchant brothers Bocharov. The main element of the decor is a combination of cream facing tiles and plastered surfaces, which was typical for many Art Nouveau masters, including Kekushev. The building has an unusual, one-of-a-kind stucco decoration - male masks and expressive stucco owls with outstretched wings.

Mansion of M. S. Saarbekov
Povarskaya st., 24

Povarskaya Street is another corner of Kekushevskaya Moscow, where several of his buildings are concentrated.

Moisey Semenovich Saarbekov, a hereditary honorary citizen, owner of a chemical plant behind the Rogozhskaya outpost on Vladimirskoye Highway, not only settled in this mansion, but also placed the office of his plant in it, which was probably taken into account by the architect during the design and construction. Completed in 1900, the building became the second Kekushev mansion in the Art Nouveau style. The construction was immediately appreciated by professionals for its refinement and purity of form, rare for Moscow at that time.

Unlike the Liszt-Koussevitzkaya mansion, which was built on a free plot, which made it possible to lay out a garden and create interesting “corner” views, this one is sandwiched on both sides by neighboring apartment buildings, and to give the building expressiveness, the architect had only one wall left. Nevertheless, the facade turned out to be spectacular. The canopy, window treatments, arches and projections create an artistic play of architectural forms.

In the interior of the mansion, Kekushev used some innovative techniques. The lobby is quite simple in decoration, but the main staircase is interesting because it is illuminated by a flat square overhead light. Overhead lighting is a popular innovation in buildings of the early twentieth century, used more than once by Kekushev, for example, in Morozov’s house, in the halls intended for an art gallery. However, in private mansions this technique is rare. Perhaps the most striking examples are the skylight windows in the Ryabushinsky mansion by Shekhtel and in the Kekushevsky mansion of Saarbekov. The staircase railing is characteristic of Art Nouveau and is drawn in the form of a whimsical ornament based on a spiral.

Mansion of I. A. Mindovsky
Povarskaya st., 44

This elegant building is one of the best and most famous monuments of Moscow Art Nouveau, where the style manifested itself in its purest form, without the “impurities” of past eras.

The elegant house is a memory of a significant and short period in the history of the city, when in its center they again began to build small comfortable villas and estates, which were characteristic of Moscow a hundred years ago, but at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries they were striking in their obvious novelty. In 1903, on the site of an old city estate on Povarskaya Street, the Moscow Trade and Construction Society, under the leadership of Yakov Rekk, built two turnkey mansions, ordering the design of both from Lev Kekushev. No expense was spared on construction and decoration - the mansions had to attract buyers not only with their stylish appearance in the spirit of Art Nouveau, which had become fashionable, but also with the richness of their interior decoration. But there was no buyer for a long time, and the mansion was used by the developer for representative purposes (however, it went down in history by the name of the first owner - Ivan Aleksandrovich Mindovsky, a large Upper Volga textile manufacturer).

A complex volumetric composition occupies a corner of the site and forms the facade of Povarskaya and Skaryatinsky Lane. The horse's head above the entrance to the yard hints that stables await us further. The doors of the forged gates of the fence form a pattern reminiscent of butterfly wings - a characteristic motif of Art Nouveau. There are no columns by which we usually distinguish classic mansions. The entire building is a single volume, with recessed windows, with openings of different heights and widths, with multi-layered reliefs around them, curvilinear window sashes, and colored stained glass windows. It’s worth walking around the building and spending a little time looking at the sculpture. Putti frolic on the relief panel: one plays the pipe, another carves a vase, the third with a compass reflects on a sheet of paper - this is how allegories of life, sculpture and architecture are depicted.

Mansion of the Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company - M. G. Ponizovsky
Povarskaya st., 42

The second mansion built by the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company with full finishing. Since the house was built immediately for the purpose of sale and with wealthy buyers in mind, it has all the novelties of the early twentieth century that provided living comfort - hot air heating, ventilation, water supply, sewerage, electric lighting. Not only the “filling” was innovative, but also the architecture. To understand the author's intention, look at it from the corner: the building seems to be composed of separate volumes, rising with ledges to the corner tower at the corner of Povarskaya Street and Skatertny Lane. Initially, the tower was crowned by the only tetrahedral dome in Moscow, covered with sheet copper. It was surrounded along the perimeter by a wide platform, which, when viewed from afar, made it look like a wide-brimmed hat. People probably went out to the site to admire the views, but during later reconstruction the dome was lost, and now it can only be seen in old photographs. The decoration of the facades was also unusual - simple and functional, it had no stucco decorations, everything was built on the contrast of a gray granite plinth and light wall tiles. In comparing the two buildings facing each other, one could discern the general trend of stylistic development - from decoratively sophisticated Art Nouveau to the elegant, but more laconic Art Deco.

In 1908, the mansion was bought by the Moscow merchant Matvey Ponizovsky for 165 thousand rubles, and in 1914 - 1915 the mansion was partially rebuilt, but the rich Kekushevsky decoration was preserved inside with a large number of colored stained glass windows, to which the architect was partial, picturesque lampshades and original lamps. Now the building houses the Afghan Embassy, ​​but you can usually get into it on the Days of Historical and Cultural Heritage on April 18 and May 18, if you can sign up for a tour.

Hotel Metropol
Teatralny pr-d, 2

This unique building was conceived by the successful Moscow entrepreneur and generous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov as a new Moscow curiosity. In 1898, Mamontov organized the Northern House-Building Society, which was supposed to build first-class mansions for sale in the city center and carry out publicly visible buildings. The first building of this kind was to be the Metropol, a new type of hotel that began to appear in Europe and America at the turn of the century. Equipped with all the latest technical innovations, they were like a “city within a city” and, in addition to comfort, provided guests with opportunities for a variety of leisure activities. A winter garden, numerous halls for exhibitions, masquerades and dance evenings, restaurants, shops and even a six-tier opera house for three thousand spectators were planned in the Metropol, in which Mamontov thought to house his private opera, which roamed around rented premises.

As the chief architect of the Northern House-Building Society, Kekushev quickly developed the layout of the future complex. But life made adjustments - as a result of unsuccessful industrial operations, Mamontov went bankrupt and the final version of Metropol became much more modest. The owner of the future building soon became the St. Petersburg Insurance Society, and the “northerners”, led by Mamontov, remained as construction contractors.

New customers dictated their requirements, and in 1899 an international competition was announced for the façade of the Metropol, which brought together 20 participants. The jury unanimously awarded the first prize to Kekushev's project, but with the start of a high-profile lawsuit against Mamontov, the plan was seriously adjusted based on the project of the young architect William Walcott, who received only fourth place in the competition. According to one version, Kekushev himself, who retained his high status, carried out the changes on the instructions of the customers - young Valcott, who had no construction experience, was not his competitor.

Mamontov's influence has also been partially preserved, especially noticeable in the choice of works of art. The central part of the new facade from Teatralny Proezd was occupied by the monumental ceramic panel “Princess of Dreams” by Mikhail Vrubel, exhibited in 1896 in the Mammoth pavilion at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. On the sides there are panels based on the drawings of the young artist Alexander Golovin, produced, like “Dream,” at the Abramtsevo ceramic factory of Savva Ivanovich.

Mamontov’s participation also included the appearance on the building of a ceramic frieze with an eloquent phrase taken from Friedrich Nietzsche’s popular work of those years, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Now only part of it has been preserved on the side facing Tretyakovsky and Teatralny Proezds, but the whole thing sounded like this: “Again, the old truth, when you build yourself a house, you notice that you have learned something.” In the eyes of the Moscow public at the beginning of the century, the quote hinted at the vicissitudes of Mamontov’s own fate that befell him during the construction of the hotel.

Although Kekushev was not the only author of Metropol, it was he who predetermined its appearance. He owns the unusual and expressive silhouette of the building: arched structures on the roof and pinnacle towers with sharp spiers. The facades on the Kitai-Gorod wall side and in the courtyards were completed entirely in accordance with his design. It is believed that he also developed the final solution for the main facades of the complex from Teatralnaya Square and Teatralny Proezd, simplifying the Valcotta facades and giving them a complete look.

Mansion of V. D. Nosov
Elektrozavodskaya st., 12

Although Kekushev’s main clients, as a rule, wanted to see their residential and apartment buildings in the center of Moscow, the architect worked a lot outside of it. This building is a rare example of a mansion-dacha in the Art Nouveau style preserved in the city. The appearance of the building was predetermined by its distance from the city center, the low-rise buildings of the surrounding area and, probably, the desire of the owner, who had his own factory nearby.

The customer of the extravagant house was Vasily Dmitrievich Nosov, who came from a family of hardworking Old Believers who founded their own textile business on the shore of Khapilovsky Pond back in 1829. At first, the Nosovs produced cheap scarves: the men of the family wove and dyed the fabric with their own hands, and their wives sewed on the fringe. But gradually the factory grew, the business expanded, and by the end of the 19th century it was already a very profitable Industrial and Trade Partnership of the Nosov brothers' manufactories with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles, which was famous for the high quality of down blankets, scarves and uniform cloth. The main owner and manager of the Partnership at the end of the 19th century was Vasily Dmitrievich Nosov. One of his daughters, by the way, married Alexei Bakhrushin, who founded the famous theater museum.

Obviously, Nosov wanted to build something fashionable, in line with modern world architectural trends. From this wish arose a structure reminiscent of European country villas with extensive terraces, figured canopies and carved wooden frames.

The building stands in the center of a small garden, and its entire composition is asymmetrical - it just begs to be walked around. Facing the street was an open veranda with a roof terrace that served the second floor living room. The ornament of the wooden carved railings of the veranda, like other elements, vaguely resembles the motifs of the French analogue of Art Nouveau - Art Nouveau, and, in particular, the fencing of the entrances to the Parisian metro by architect Hector Guimard.

Despite all the modernity of the architecture, inside the building was divided into two halves - male and female. In the men's room, the owner and his servants lived on the first floor, and one of his adult daughters lived on the second floor. The interiors of the house, designed by Kekushev, were absolutely magnificent. The central element of the hall was the fireplace, decorated with Abramtsevo majolica tiles and forged copper. A grand oak staircase led to the second floor, illuminated by a huge window facing the garden. Its decoration can be classified as one of the most original examples of Moscow Art Nouveau. Wooden panels, a lampshade depicting winged Sirens, and a picturesque frieze depicting ancient Russian sailing boats emphasized the ancient Russian aesthetic preferences of the Old Believer owner.

After the revolution, the mansion was nationalized and for a long time it housed various children's institutions. But from the late 1980s to 2008, restoration took place, returning the original appearance to the elements of the interior decoration. At the same time, a fence with a forged lattice and a gate was added on the street side. Don't fall into the trap - this is not real modernism, but how modern restorers understand this style. Now the building houses the Youth Historical and Cultural Center “Mansion of the Merchant V. D. Nosov” (MICC) and the Music and Music Department of the Russian State Library for Youth, so it’s not difficult to get into it (which is rare for Moscow Art Nouveau mansions). To do this, you don’t even have to pretend to be a musician in search of rare notes - the building houses historical and documentary exhibitions dedicated to the Nosov family and Kekushev, and regularly hosts film screenings, chamber music concerts and literary and musical evenings.

The article uses materials from the book “Architectural heritage of Russia. Lev Kekushev" . M.: Rudentsov Publishing House, 2013.

The unique building at 21 Ostozhenka Street was built in the Art Nouveau style by a famous architect for his family and registered to his wife, Anna Ionovna.

Kekushev created this creation of his on the basis of a personal project developed back in 1899 by order of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov’s company “Northern House-Building Society”, which in Moscow was engaged, among other things, in the construction of fashionable mansions for their subsequent sale.

The building resembles a medieval castle with its wonderful appearance. The asymmetrical composition, dissected and different-height volumes, a pointed turret, the planes of narrow facades and unusually arranged pediments give the building a special romanticism.

It is worth noting that the architect did not copy examples of Western European architecture, but only built on them, transforming and stylizing his own mansion in Art Nouveau forms: creating contrasting scales, highlighting profiles, heavier proportions, deepening window openings and decorative niches, as well as rich use of floral ornaments.

As for the decor of the mansion on Ostozhenka, 21, it is very original and varied.

One can see the complex rhythm of windows of various designs, the contrast of façade decoration in color and surface treatment, the framing of window openings using large plastic, the massiveness of the vault with several columns at the main entrance, the use of stucco moldings of opposite colors - white and black, clear elaboration of reliefs of ornamental details with depiction of vegetation.

Initially, Kekushev decorated the gable, which is located on the street facade, with an impressive-sized sculpture of a standing lion.

Many experts believe that its prototype was the sculptural lions on the columns of the gateway of the Vienna port of Nussdorf, created by Rudolf Weyer, an Austrian sculptor. Unfortunately, over time, this detail disappeared from the Kekushev mansion and can only be seen in old photographs.

Lev Nikolaevich and his wife did not live within these walls for long. In 1906, there was a rift in the family and the architect moved out of the house. In 1909, the property was sold by his wife and further in archival documents it is referred to as “Smitsky’s house.”