Vul. Akademika Bohomoltsia, 9 – Lviv Oblast Prosecutor Office (former residence) ID: 47

This three-storied residential townhouse was built in 1905 under a project designed at the architectural bureau of Ivan Levynskyi (Jan Lewiński) for the Elster and Topf company owned by Izrael and Salomon Elster as well as by Leon Topf. This is a residential building in Secession (Art Nouveau) style, an architectural monument of local significance (protection number M-9). Now the house is occupied by the office of the public prosecutor of Lviv and by the Lviv state institute of municipal construction projecting "Lvivpromkomunbud".

Story

The building’s plot was formed in 1904, when Bohomoltsia (then Adama Asnyka) street was laid and the area, where an old villa and gardens had been located (its old address was Pańska street 5 or conscription number 508 4/4), was parcelled for housing development. The plot was owned by Klementyna Witosławska, née Bochdan.

The plot, where the house number 9 was built later, was bought by the Elster and Topf company (together with the plots of the houses number 4, 8, and 11). Subsequently, they built two townhouses there (number 9 and 11) with a paper factory building adjoining them from behind. The project was designed at the architectural bureau of Ivan Levynskyi (Jan Lewiński) and endorsed by the Lviv Magistrate in November of 1904. The construction was completed late the following year.

According to the decision of the Lviv Region Executive Committee number 381 dated 5 July 1985, the building is an architectural monument of local significance in the city of Lviv (protection number M-9). Now the house is occupied by the office of the public prosecutor of Lviv and by the Lviv state institute of municipal construction projecting "Lvivpromkomunbud".

Architecture

At the north-east corner of the square on Bohomoltsia street, there are houses number 9 and 11, residential buildings constructed together with the factory building owned by the Topf and Elster company. Due to their architectural design the two townhouses look as a whole.

Generally, the houses are typical examples of residential buildings of the first decade of the 20^th century. They were built with the use of modern materials and constructions and with the connection to pipelines and networks. Stylized Historicist elements (Neo-Baroque, Neoclassicist) and Secessionist are combined in their decorative design.

The three-storied house is built of brick and plastered. It has Klein vaults in the basements, metal I-beam bridgings between the floors and a wooden attic floor. The roof’s wooden structure of rafters and posts is covered with tin, painted in dark red. Forged metal elements (balcony railing) and moulding are used in the façades décor.

The house number 9 is located similarly to the house number 7 and has a similar complex configuration in plan, caused by the complexity of the site, by the vicinity of six other townhouses and by the need for natural lighting of all living premises. The building forms three courtyards which are combined with the ones of the neighbouring houses. It can be entered via a portal leading to the passage and to the courtyard. According to the original project, through the corridor on the left one can get (a) to the caretaker’s single-room apartment with a small vestibule and a toilet; (b) to a four-room apartment with a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet inside; (c) to the courtyard common for Bohomoltsia street 9 and Pekarska street 10; (d) to the factory office, from where one can get to the factory building itself (there were residential apartments on the upper floors above the factory). There are also two rooms located to the right of the passage.

The façade is divided in a manner typical of Historicism: the ground floor, covered with French rustication, is separated from the upper floors by a bar. The upper floors façades are divided by lesenes. The windows are decorated with stylized trimmings and pediments; there is a stylized Neo-Baroque attic above the wide crowning cornice. Some details have a clearly Secessionist nature: moulded flowers in window trimmings, in the frieze under the crowning cornice, and on the attic, as well as plaster textured surfaces on the attics. The gate’s woodwork is designed in Neoclassicist style.

In the interior, two 1904 stained glass windows with etched drawings (in the door light between the hall and the corridor) have survived.

Today, the building has been redesigned and adapted for the public prosecutors’ offices and for the Projecting Institute. The reconstructed attic is used; the roof, where some dormers were arranged, has been replaced. The façades have been restored and are in good condition.

People

Artur Eibenschütz — a bank officer, resident of the house in 1910
Bronisław Bauer — architect who designed the 3^rd floor for the attached factory building
DawidElster — a Viennese bank officer, resident of the house in 1910  
Zygmunt Sperber — engineer who designed a new roof for tha attached factory building
Izrael Elster — co-owner of Elster&Topf company
Karol Elster — an employee of an oil joint stock company, resident of the house in 1910
Klementyna Witosławska née Bochdan — owner of the previous real estate
Ludwik Mazurkewicz — a doctor, a lawyer candidate, resident of the house in 1913
Marceli Szapira — a doctor, lawyer, resident of the house in 1910
Sаlomon Elster — co-owner of Elster&Topf company
Tadeusz Höflinger — owner of the building in the 1930s, an enterpreneur, also a councillor of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce in Lviv
Jan Höflinger — co-owner of the chocolate factory here in the 1930s
Jan Nepomucen Kaan — director of the Montan oil joint stock company, resident of the house in 1910

Sources