Vul. Dorosha, 4 – residential building ID: 2691

The three-story townhouse was commissioned by the merchant and public figure Julian Abrysowski and built under a project designed by Alfred Kamienobrodzki in 1908-1909. It is a Neo-Renaissance townhouse typical of those times.

Story

The plot where the house stands was formed at the turn of the twentieth century, when a larger plot with an old villa and a garden was parcelled. The old plot had the conscription number 707 ¼ and occupied a fairly large area, from what is now vul. Zelena to the present-day vul. Levytskoho; at that time, the Pasika, a tributary of the Poltva river, flowed along the latter. From 1892, the city authorities coordinated the works to cover this river; consequently, private owners began to demolish villas in the area and to build apartment houses instead. In 1893, the present-day vul. Dorosha was formed, which the City Council named in 1895 in honor of Wincenty Pol, a Polish national poet and scholar associated with Lviv. The street ran along the edge of the old plot, with the villa still remaining there for some time. After it was demolished, the even-numbered side of vul. Dorosha was built on the site, with a total of six three-storey townhouses (numbers 2-12).

 

A Villa and a Garden: Previous History of the Building Plot (18th c. – 1895)

The first archival documents mentioning a villa in the present-day street's area date back to June 1863, when the then owner Julia Wodkiewicz applied to the Lviv magistrate for permission to add a two-room wing to the villa's rear. There are no notes from the city authorities on this application, so perhaps the plot owner changed her mind: just a few months later, in October, she requested permission to use a different, larger wing with eight rooms, four per floor, which had already been completed.

This reconstruction consisted in adding rooms, as well as a separate block of toilets. The drawings were made by a builder Joseph Mühel (DALO 2/1/600:13). The municipal authorities, including representatives of the building department, the sanitary department, and the fire department, found no reason to prohibit the use of these rooms, which were built "of solid material at the rear of the old house" (DALO 2/1/602:1-2).

When Julia Wodkiewicz – no further information could be found about her – applied to the city authorities for permission, she asked for one more thing. According to her, the plot she owned was adjacent to two streets, ul. Zielona and the so-called ul. Rury (literally, "the Pipe Street", now vul. Levytskoho), but not directly. Between ul. Rury and her property there was another plot of land where Felix Behrenfeld's woodshed stood. The owner complained that this woodshed, as well as the fence erected by Behrenfeld, spoiled the view of her plot causing her material losses, which implies that Julia Wodkiewicz rented her house out to tenants. She asked the city authorities to demolish the woodshed and the fence, apparently to make her house more attractive to tenants (DALO 2/1/602:1). However, the woodshed happened to be in municipal ownership, and the fence was erected by order of the authorities, so Wodkiewicz's request was declined (DALO 2/1/602:2).

Before 1870 the plot was purchased by Józef Majer. This name was shared by a famous contemporary – a medical scientist and rector of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. However, there is no doubt that this was a pure coincidence.

Majer planned a significant reconstruction of his property. In the spring of 1870, he had a project approved by the magistrate to rebuild the old wing with the narrower façade facing vul. Zelena to accommodate a restaurant and planned to build a new outbuilding closer to the villa. During the approval process, the project changed a lot. Instead of a restaurant, the wing was converted into four two-room apartments with kitchens; Majer had the project approved after it had been implemented. The outbuilding was erected without a spacious laundry room and toilets; it was limited to a stable for four horses, a cart house, and a woodshed (DALO 2/1/600:14-16; 2/1/602:7-11).

The next owner of the plot, Celestyna Łączyńska, decided that the woodshed was no longer relevant and had a laundry, a storeroom, and a caretaker's flat built in 1873 (DALO 2/1/600:17).

In 1882, the plot was owned by Samuel Scheibe, who had a project to convert the residential wing into a bakery approved. The drawings were made by architect Leopold Warchałowski. According to this project, four large ovens were to appear at the back of the single-storey building, the roof above them replaced with sheets of tin, without roof lucarnes as before, but with small dormer windows in the wall. A four-meter-tall chimney was to rise above the roof (DALO 2/1/600:18). A year later, Samuel Scheibe had a project for the addition of a toilet to the outbuilding approved (DALO 2/1/600:19).

In the 1889 directory, Józef Skrzyszowski is listed as the owner of the plot number 707 ¼ (then ul. Zielona 19). In the same year, at one of its meetings, the Lviv City Council considered a project for laying new streets between ul. Zielona and ul. Kochanowskiego at the request of Tekla Skrzyszowska and Countess Wanda Zamojska, the owner of a neighboring plot (Kurjer Lwowski, 1889, No. 315, p. 3). The report of the Lviv magistrate dated 1893 indicates that such a street was laid out (Sprawozdanie, 1895, 7).

It was only in 1895 that the street was named in honor of Wincenty Pol. A part of the villa's plot was purchased by Aleksander Maryański, a lawyer and a member of the Lviv City Council. He commissioned a project for a two-storey townhouse (DALO 2/1/598:21). The owner of the villa, Anna Świecińska, née Skrzyszowska, signed the drawings as a neighbor. For unknown reasons, the townhouse was not built, and the land was sold to Julian Abrysowski, who will be described in more detail below. He expanded this plot to the present-day vul. Levytskoho, purchasing a fragment where the city's woodshed used to stand.

In 1900, Abrysowski commissioned the first building of those surviving till our days, the corner one at vul. Dorosha 2 and vul. Levytskoho 44. This building with two entrances was designed by the firm of brothers Alfred and Kazimierz Kamienobrodzki. In addition to the architects and the customer, following persons signed the drawings: Józefa Abrysowska, Julian's wife and co-owner of the property, and his business partner Władysław Stachiewicz. It is likely that Stachiewicz helped Abrysowski purchase the plot; however, it seems that he did not plan to settle there himself and donated or sold his share to Abrysowski later. The project was completed in 1901, and Abrysowski and his family moved there, leaving his parents' house at the Rynok Square, 30.

Perhaps Abrysowski wanted no more houses to be built. The corner house had enough space for his family, including his not so young children, and several more apartments to rent out to tenants for additional income. The drawings of the above-mentioned house do not include plot division; on the situation plan the entire undeveloped area is marked as one large garden. Therefore, one can assume that the Abrysowski family wished for a large garden when they moved out from the crowded city center to a greener neighborhood.

However, the market dictated adjustments. The city was growing rapidly as many people moved here from the provinces, and the housing was becoming denser. The Lviv Building Code of 1885 stipulated that neighborhoods should be built up continuously, houses being erected on the border with pavements, without deviations into the depth of the plot. In Lviv,the 1900s were a period of a construction boom, when about three hundred new townhouses were built annually (Бірюльов, 2008, 387). Thus, the Abrysowskis had no choice but to either sell a piece of their garden or to have control over how the rest of the plot was built up.

Thus, three more houses appeared nearby on the plot: the present-day vul. Levytskoho 42 and 40, as well as vul. Dorosha 4. It is noteworthy that the first two cover their plots almost completely, their courtyards are narrow and minimal. The house at vul. Dorosha 4 is designed differently: part of the plot was left unbuilt, with a garden. It is worth noting that the end of its side wing bears the brick inscription "A. J. 1908". Most likely, this stands for "Abrysowski Julian", and it is an accent on the idea that nothing else should be attached to this wing.

A few years later, this house became the property of Julian's son, Władysław Abrysowski, who later inherited his father's business as well.

 

Stachiewicz i Abrysowski: A Success Story

Julian Abrysowski and Władysław Stachiewicz were two partners who ran a successful fabric trading business together for over a quarter of a century. In 1879, the young men started their business by purchasing Bazyli Towarnicki's shop from the latter's heirs. Until 1892, the name of their company was Bazylego Towarnickiego następcy Stachiewicz i Abrysowski. According to press advertisements, they sold woolen, plush, velvet, silk, damask and flannel fabrics, clothes, headscarves and shawls, cambric and satin, cashmere, various types of cotton like zephyr and cretonne, canvas and tablecloths, and more. They had a lot of competitors, but their fabrics were in demand because in the nineteenth century most people sewed their own clothes or had them made by tailors rather than buying ready-made ones.

The Stachiewicz i Abrysowski shop, as it was renamed in 1892, functioned in the house of the Zipper merchants at the Rynok Square 32, on the ground floor. In 1911, the owners had the old house demolished; a year later, they had the present building constructed. The shop continued to operate at the same address.

Both men were involved in public activities; in the 1890s, they joined the Society of Young Merchants, registered at ul. Czarneckiego 1 (now vul. Vynnychenka). In 1905, Abrysowski became the head of this society. In the late 1890s, he became an expert on trade issues at the Provincial Court and a member of the Galician Savings Bank. In 1896, or even earlier, he and Stachiewicz joined the Riflemen's Society, an elite bourgeois club including many businessmen who had a decisive influence on Lviv politics in the 19th century. Many of Lviv presidents (mayors) initially rose to prominence in this society and became its leaders. The two men also became members of the Polish Sokół society.

At a time when the right to vote was not universal but depended on the level of taxes paid, entrepreneurs were one of the priority groups of the population who could run for the City Council. Władysław Stachiewicz became a member around 1897 (Szematyzm, 1897), and Julian Abrysowski in 1909 (Szematyzm, 1909). The meetings of the City Council took place in the evenings; no remuneration was envisaged for this work. The former was a member of the section dealing with security, order, health, police, and the army, while the latter was a member of the section in charge of religion and charity. Around 1906, they joined the Society of Amateurs of Lviv's Past (pol. Towarzystwo miłośników przeszłości Lwowa), which included many members of the City Council and magistrate's officers and positioned itself as a Polish patriotic society. Its members combined their interest in antiquity with the promotion of Lviv's Polish character.

The two partners were also related. Julian Abrysowski married Józefa Stachiewicz, probably Władysław's sister (around 8 years younger than the latter). They had two sons, the elder Władysław (1887) and the younger Julian (1897), and at least one daughter as the notice of Józefa's death in 1908 mentions a son-in-law.

As merchants with more than twenty years of experience and an accumulated capital, both Julian Abrysowski and Władysław Stachiewicz changed their homes at the turn of the century. Stachiewicz moved out of his own house at ul. Cłowa 6 (now vul. Pavla Rymlianyna) and bought a townhouse at ul. Akademicka 12 (now prosp. Shevchenka), a central and fashionable street. Abrysowski decided to move from the very centre of the city, where his parents had lived, to a cosier suburb and thus had the houses on the corner of ul. Kochanowskiego and ul. Pola (now vul. Levytskoho and vul. Dorosha) built. Newspapers report that both of them built or bought summer houses in the village of Briukhovychi not far from Lviv too; they also liked to spend holidays on their own or with their families in Zakopane, in the Polish Tatra Mountains.

In 1914, Julian Abrysowski was one of the City Council members who did not leave Lviv because of the war and the Russian occupation of the city. In 1920, he left the management of the firm, handing it over to his son Władysław; the son of his late partner, Tadeusz Stachiewicz, became a co-owner. However, the latter left the partnership two years later, and Julian returned, but not for long as in 1927 or in early 1928 he died. The name of the shop did not change, but around 1934 Władysław moved it to pl. Halicki, 13 (now pl. Halytska).

 

Apartment House at Vul. Dorosha 4

Julian Abrysowski submitted the design of the house for approval by the city authorities in August 1908 and received it back in September. He additionally paid 259 crowns 74 hellers to the city treasury for the right to use the city sewerage system.

In the course of construction, it was decided to change the layout to add a dwelling for the caretaker at the edge of the wing, which was approved separately in February 1909. In July, the townhouse was completed, and the magistrate commission stated that it was "completely finished, dry, and suitable for occupancy." So, starting in August 1909, the first tenants moved in.

In the building's basement there were storage rooms for the residents and a laundry; each floor had two apartments. On the ground floor, there were three-room apartments, while on the second and third floors, there were one four-room apartment and one three-room apartment. The larger apartments were more prestigious, as they had not only toilets but also bathrooms inside, and a niche for the maid, a separate toilet for her, and a pantry — all close to the kitchen. Also, a back staircase with entrances to the kitchens on three floors was provided at the rear of the wing.

The building generally corresponds to the project designed in 1908-1909, but the use of the rooms has changed: for example, niches for maids have not been preserved, as well as pantries and service toilets, etc. The façade differs from the designed one in the balcony fencing; apart from that, the obelisks on the attic were lost due to weathering and have not been restored.

The building differs from the neighboring ones – it features no Secession influences. Instead, it is in Neo-Renaissance style, symmetrical, and rather conservative. The attic with scrolls and obelisk vases above the two central windows is a reference to the idea of the "Polish Renaissance" promoted by some architects in Lviv at the turn of the twentieth century. In particular, there are certain similarities with another project by Kamienobrodzki, namely, the expansion of the Polish Sokół Society’s main building located at today's vul. Dudayeva, 8, which he carried out a little earlier, in 1906-1907. Julian Abrysowski was also a member of this society. Also, a molded caduceus is prominently placed on the top of the façade as a symbol of trade, indicating the owner's occupation.

The archival file of this house contains several papers from the late 1930s, when it was owned by Bernard Kruh. According to the 1935 address book, he was a retired railway officer. In 1937, he filed a complaint against his neighbors for the neglected façade of their gatehouse, mentioning the owner of the building, Nesia Dornhelm, the wife of the merchant Teodor Dornhelm of ul. Sapiehy 19 (now vul. Bandery). In this letter, he explained that the tenants from the ground floor had complained to him about an ugly view from their windows; moreover, bricks could fall out of the house's destroyed chimney, which was dangerous. A year later, the magistrate asked Kruh himself to repair his townhouse's walls, which, in the building department inspector's opinion, also looked neglected.

After Lviv became part of the Soviet Union in 1939 and private property was abolished, the house was nationalised and turned into communal flats. Today, it remains fully residential and has undergone few changes on the outside. There are almost no authentic wooden windows left, and some of the decorative elements are in disrepair. Behind the building is a garden with fruit trees and flowers, which is tended by the residents. According to the legend of the older residents, there used to be a small chapel (probably a statue with a canopy) of the Virgin Mary in the garden, but its fate is unclear.

Architecture

The L-shaped three-story building is located in the row housing on an elongated plot with a garden at the rear. In terms of height, dimensions, and the façade layout, this townhouse is virtually not different from the neighboring ones; however, it differs stylistically. Both the house at vul. Levytskoho 44/ vul. Dorosha 2 and the one at vul. Dorosha, 6 show the influence of Secession architecture. House 4 avoided this popular trend of the early twentieth century and is more conservative for its time. It is designed in the Neo-Renaissance style. However, the house also differs from the ordinary Neo-Renaissance townhouses of Lviv, of which many were built primarily in the 1880s and 1890s. It features elements typical of local castles and palaces of the gentry, such as a characteristic attic with scrolls and obelisks, rosettes, and ornaments in the window decor. Abrysowski's house can be considered one of the earliest attempts to implement the ideas of the Polish Renaissance, which were actively promoted in Lviv in the early twentieth century, e.g. by Kazimierz Mokłowski. In 1907, a building of a very similar character was built on the present-day vul. Kovzhuna, designed by the same architect, Kamienobrodzki. In 1910, the Zippers' townhouse on the Rynok Square was built in a similar spirit, which, coincidentally (or not), housed the Stachiewicz i Abrysowski shop.

According to the original layout, there were two apartments on each floor. The ground floor had two three-room apartments. They differed in terms of comfort: one of them had a toilet and a bathroom inside, as well as a kitchen with a pantry, a niche for a maid, and an additional toilet. The second apartment did not have a bathroom and was not designed for a maid to stay there. On the upper floors, the situation was similar, and the apartment with a bathroom had four rooms. There was a back staircase behind the wing and a one-room annex behind it on the ground floor used as the caretaker's apartment.

The brick townhouse’s basements have Klein-type ceilings, namely, brick vaults on metal beams. Interfloor ceilings are also made with the use of metal beams. The attic floor is made of wood. The roof is made of a wooden rafter and post structure and covered with tin sheets. The main and the back staircases are made of wood. Fragments of glass with etched ornaments have been preserved in the windows above the stair landings.

The Neo-Renaissance façade is symmetrical except for the location of the entrance. It has six window axes. The ground floor is decorated with plank rustication, with textured lisenes and keystones above the rectangular windows standing out against it. It is separated from the second and third floors by a horizontal bar. The second floor windows have trimmings and triangular pediments combining Doric triglyphs and Neo-Baroque putti in tympanums. In the middle of the façade is a balcony on three consoles, with brick columns and metal fences. The third floor has similarly rectangular windows, but is complemented with Neo-Baroque profiled trimmings featuring segmental tops and molded keystones. In the center, there is a stucco caduceus as a symbol of trade. The façade is crowned with a non-order entablature with rosettes. Above the central part of the façade is a brick attic with scrolls, topped by an obelisk in the middle and two vases (one has not been preserved) covered with tin.

People

Józefa Abrysowska neé Stachiewicz (~1863–1908) — Julian Abrysowski's wife
Julian Abrysowski (? – 1927/1928) — merchant and public figure, member of Lviv city council in the early twentieth century; he commissioned the building
Julian Abrysowski Jr. (1897–1964) — younger son of Julian Abrysowski
Władysław Abrysowski (1887–1930s?) — older son of Julian Abrysowski; owner and resident of the house at vul. Dorosha, 4 in the early twentieth century
Tomasz Bieniawski — post office official, tenant of the house in 1913
Marja Biskup — a retired tenant of the house in 1935
Józef Biskup — director of the municipal Records office (Tabula miejska), tenant of the house in 1914–1916
Antonina Branicka — a private employee, tenant of the house in 1935
Władysław Buszek — a jeweler, tenant of the house in 1913
Michał Byleń — a carpenter, tenant of the house in 1935
Marja, Anna, Eleanora Domazar — teachers, tenants of the house in 1935
Juljan Dworzański — a mechanic, tenant of the house in 1935
Marja Jaworska — a teacher, tenant of the house in 1935
Alfred Kamienobrodzki (1844–1922) — architect who co-designed the building in 1908
Kazimierz Kamienobrodzki (1874–1938) — architect who co-designed the building in 1908
Feliks Kopicki — a journalist, tenant of the house in 1935
Cyryl Kochanowski — a councilor in the regional forest department (at the Governor's Office and later at the Voivodeship), tenant of the house in 1913-1935
Bernard Kruh — a retired railway officer, owner of the house in the 1930s
Dawid Kruh — a law student, tenant of the house in 1935
Ernestyna Kruh — in 1939, the last pre-war owner of the house, widowed at the time
Helena Kuśniewska — an employee, tenant of the house in 1935
Katarzyna Lewicka — a widow of a post office official, tenant of the house in 1910
Jan Lekczyński — senior councilor at the Regional Court, tenant of the house in 1910
Celestyna Łączyńska — owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Leopold Mahler — a bank employee, tenant of the house in 1935
Józef Majer — owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Aleksander Maryański (1850–1908) — lawyer, member of the Lviv city council who briefly owned a plot here
Joseph Mühel — a builder who authored reconstruction projects of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Wilhelm Neuman — a military captain, tenant of the house in 1914
Izak Reich — an engineer, tenant of the house in 1914-1916
Wacław Salać — a sergeant (unterofficer), tenant of the house in 1910
Samuel Scheibe — owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Albina Schönhuber — a widow of an inspector, tenant of the house in 1910
Tekla Skrzyszowska — co-owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Józef Skrzyszowski — co-owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Tadeusz Stachiewicz — son of Władysław Stachiewicz
Władysław Stachiewicz (~1855–1908) — merchant and public figure, Julian Abrysowski's business partner
Lola Stöcker — wife of an engineer, tenant of the house in 1913
Anna Świecińska neé Skrzyszowska (1863–1918) — owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Leopold Warchałowski — architect who designed reconstructions of the old villa and its outhouses
Julia Wodkiewicz — owner of the old villa in the nineteenth century
Jan Żak — a public servant, tenant of the house in 1935

Sources