12, Bunina Street. Building of Joint-Stock Company of Odessa private pawnshop
A huge monumental structure, built in 1905 for Odessa private pawnshop, can be called one of the most striking constructions in Odessa citing Italian Renaissance. An architect Vikentiy Ivanovich Prohaska, raising largely exquisite apartment buildings and mansions, however, coped perfectly with an unconventional challenge— the design of the building of administrative and public function.
Type of building: administrative
Style: modernized Neo-Renaissance
Architects
A. A. Digbi (building, the 1820-s)
A. N. Kolovich (rebuilding, 1851)
V. I. Prohaska (rebuilding, reconstruction, replanning, raising of the second storey, new design of facades and interiors)
Date of construction: 1904—1905
Status: local architectural monument
Second address: 12, Lecha Kaczynskogo Street (former Polskaya Street)
Previous building of the site: house of Sikard, old building of Joint-Stock Company of Odessa private pawnshop
Facades
Odessa from the first years of its existence was, first of all, a city of trade and usury. Loaning was started in 1800, as, however, and pawn operations, when the city was sent 25,000 rubles at the supreme injunction for construction work that took place in the port. The use of money occurred under the percentage that was usually charged from the total amount taken, and the expense was on parts. If a money lender became aware of the unreliability of the merchant, he could at any time request a refund the amount back. However, the owners of pawnshops did not abuse such right: they valued their reputation, and for a termination of the contract a suspicion of bankruptcy had to be significant.
At the beginning of the XIX century Committee for the fulfillment of works in the port was formed. The president of Commerce College was actually a prince Gagarin, who later gave permission for the issuance of money in a pledge of valuables and goods. It is known that the first loan was given an Italian whose name did not come up to our days, but following loans were issued Odessa businessmen of that time: bills, showing the issuance of a number of loans for 1000 rubles in a pledge of 1000 pounds of fuel sulfur several loans of 1000 rubles and 500 rubles in a pledge of 80 and 40 pounds of wax, oil drums, fur goods, houses were preserved in the archives. For paying majority of debts deferments were widely practiced.
Life in debt, it can be said, was perhaps the custom, quite well-known people took loans as well. Among them there are two obligations from December 17, 1800 from Felix Deribas, who took 1,000 rubles in a pledge of silver jewels, and his wife, Octavia, taken 1,200 rubles in a pledge of ladies’ powder set, a large silver tub, two trays, spoons and more.
At the end of 1886 in Odessa the first private pawnshop was opened (chairman and manager— V. Kirchner), it was not even partially owned by the state, and had a capital of 500 thousand rubles. Later, with the growth of the firm prosperity, the capital was increased to 700,000. Being a very respectable office, the pawnshop had as many as seven offices throughout the city, the most important of which was located on 12, Policeiskaya Street, in a large two-storey house of Sicard, probably erected as early as the 1820’s (architect A. Digbi). Originally, this house was built as a grain warehouse («magazeyn») with habitable rooms, in 1851, the building was subjected to reconstruction (architect — A. N. Kolovich) significantly modified its look and layout. Since its foundation, the pawnshop rented this house, and in 1891 finally bought it.
Advertisement of Joint-Stock Company of Odessa private pawnshop
As already mentioned, the pawnshop departments were scattered throughout the city. In addition to the head office of the pawnshop situated on Policeiskaya Street, there were seven more of its branches, four of them — of general purpose (in 26, Tiraspolskaya Street, 62, Richelievskaya Street, 16, Preobrazhenskaya Street, 44, Stepovaya Street,) and three specialized ones— on 22, Uspenskaya with large warehouses for furniture storage; on 29, Mikhailovskaya Street, where it was possible to pawn a car, a carriage, a bicycle, a foot sewing machine and other bulky items, and on 14,Deribasovskaya Street, they took as a pledge gold, silver, precious stones and watches, and, right up to nine pm, as a person could always urgently need money. A loan is usually issued for a period of up to three months, after which one could still ask for a two-month delay its return, but then all unredeemed things, were sold by auction at the main office of the pawnshop on certain days of the week: jewelry — Mondays, furniture — Wednesdays, fur and clothing — Thursdays, bicycles — on Fridays. Besides, the pawnshop without issuing a loan, but for a certain fee, took different things in storage for one year, and some housewives preferred to leave fur coats and other expensive furs for the summer without any risk of damage by the moth, which was quite possibly in the home conditions. Very thrifty or staying in reduced circumstances citizens, before moving to the country even refused from the apartment and the furniture and other property gave to the pawnshop, where it was safely stored until the autumn return of their hosts in the city and rent them new or old accommodation.
By the end of the XIX century, the firm started to experience a strong lack of storage space for unredeemed and stored property, among which, of course, there were many very bulky items that required a large exhibition space. Besides, for implementation of auctions and bank operations required specially equipped rooms. The old building on Policeiskaya Street no longer met the needs of the company in the first place owing to the lack of space. In 1904, a construction work on the «adaptation» of the house to the needs of the pawnshop started. The project was made by a well-known by that time architect V. I. Prohaska, who, beginning with the reconstruction of the original building, raised in fact a new one.
By 1905, all construction work had been completed, but an interior finishing still took a while. At the corner of Policeiskaya (Bunina) Street and the Polskaya Street a magnificent building arose, the style of which was made in the best traditions of the Italian Renaissance with some elements borrowed from Art Nouveau. The new building of the pawnshop was carrying out in two stages: firstly a wing on Policeiskaya Street was raised, as evidenced by the photo of the end of 1904, and the following year a wing on Polskaya Street appeared. In fact, the previous building was entered in the volume of currently existing one, the first and second storeys kept the shape of windows and the width of piers. A passage arch location to the courtyard also had no changes. The third storey and a mezzanine were already overbuilt by Prohaska. The second floor housed the auction and operating rooms, and from Policeiskaya Street side, on the first floor, extensive areas for the storage of the pawnshop clients’ property were equipped.
Photograph of the building of the Soviet times
The building is located on a corner site and is L-shaped in plan. The wing on Policeiskaya Street is more extensive than the wing on Polskaya Street (17 to 13 window axes, respectively), and occupies most of the block. A large scale structure is emphasizes not only by chiaroscuro of large forms with refined profiles and moldings, but by a general proportional order as well.
An extreme window axis, adjacent to the neighboring hotel «Bristol», is singled out by a massive risalit. The corner part of the building is accentuated by wide risalit of three window axes on every street side.
Risalits
Having met, they form a volume similar to the square in plan tower. Similarly the corner part of a later house Von-Desh at the corner of Gogolya Street and Sabaneyev bridge is accentuated. «The Tower» and the extreme risalit have a mezzanine, through which the level of the roof here is much higher. Between risalits on Policeiskaya Street rhythmic series of identically decorated third-storey windows stretch. The composition formed by the decoration details of each of them is remarkable for harmony and well found proportions. Under the window there is a balustrade, serving as a basis for two pilasters with Corinthian capitals, flanking window openings and supporting a triangular fascia. Each pilaster is decorated with moulded wreath of a modernized style at the base. A window of the third storey in the risalit, that adjacent to the neighboring hotel, is decorated in a similar manner.
Decoration of the second floor windows
At the level of the first and second storeys risalits have a trapezoidal shape, with a pronounced inclination of the edges, and at the third storey level the edges are perpendicular to the horizon line. Such a move significantly strengthened the monumentality of the building and weighted its lower part, in contrast to which the upper looks much lighter and refined. The central part of the facade plane on Policeiskaya Street is marked by another risalit, less deep, but having the same shape as the others. Its width is two window axes, on the second floor there is a balcony with a stone balustrade, and on the ground — two-column portal in the vein of classicism.
Central risalit on Bunina Street
Another portal is closer to Polskaya Street. Compared with the previous one, it is put forward much further as regards the plane of the facade and is treated as a small porch. Here there is an entrance to the staircase, and from the ground floor landing a passageway into the courtyard is made.
Portico of the main entrance
The corner part of the building is decorated with the greatest magnificence. A second-floor window is flanked by pilasters, and a massive fascia, the central, is based on two columns that, like the pilasters, are crowned with Corinthian capitals. From the side of each street there are balconies with balustrades. Balconies of the corner part and the central risalit on Policeiskaya Street are supported by large consoles made in Art Nouveau style. Over extreme windows of the corner risalit from Polskaya Street side there are preserved dates of the pawnshop foundation and the building construction (1886, 1905 respectively). Over similar windows from Policeiskaya Street side, originally an inscription: «Odessa pawnshop» was placed, eventually destroyed. A strip of meander, framing windows from Policeiskaya Street side as well, is stretched along the piers of the corner part.
The similar meander adorns under windows cornices of the first floor. On the corner part of the building there is a marble advertising plate of the architect: «Built by architect. V. I. Prohaska. 1905». A similar one can be seen on the facade of Prokudin’s house.
Decoration of the corner part of the building
Advertising plate of the architect
The facade from Polskaya Street side is compositionally different. For example, second-floor windows are grouped in threes and the central one is devoid of any kind of framing.
A semicircular passage arch is enclosed in the volume of trapezoid portal of two-storey height.
Portal
Building facades are processed with rustic stone that on the ground and first floors is rather deep and expressive, and on the second — conditional.
Finishing of the ground and first floors
The facade plane of the second floor is separated from the two lower floors by a cornice. Much more massive cornice crowns the building itself and rests upon large dentils traditional for Prohaska.
Between them (outside risalits) there are small gaps, designed to illuminate the garret. Mezzanine windows are much larger and decorated by Art Nouveau wreaths.
Mezzanine windows
The facade from Polskaya Street has three storeys, and from Policeiskaya Street goes from three to two that is associated with the descent of the street in the direction of Karantinnaya gully. Hence, to identify number of storeys is quite difficult.
The pawnshop had safely existed within the walls of the building until the revolution, in Soviet times the building housed a clothing factory named after Vorovskiy, which subsequently moved into a new building on Ilfa and Petrova Street. However, much of the interior decoration was irretrievably lost. The staircase (entrance from Policeiskaya Street) has preserved the original railings of unique pattern, which, however, similar to the gate of a merchant Blizhenskiy’s house (authorship of V.I. Prohaska as well). Walls of the staircase are completely devoid of decoration, but on the second floor it can be seen conditional arcades from shallow arch niches. Entrances to operating and auction rooms, which interiors have not been spared by time and lodgers, are located here as well.
Staircase
Through the passage arch (not used now) and the passage from the landing of the ground floor one can get into the courtyard of the building. The rear facade is decorated modestly, but the second-floor windows as windows of the exterior facade, have a semicircular shape in order to comply with the symmetry of the halls with two-sided lighting.
The concisely decorated passage arch is probably remained untouched during the rebuilding of the old building; the details of the house view can be read on the front facades.
In general, despite the highly dilapidated state (with the loss of major details of the decor), the facades of the building survived to the present day in virtually unchanged shape. The building of Joint-Stock Company of Odessa private pawnshop can be called one of the key in early works of V. I. Prochaska, equally with houses of Ksid and Blizhenskiy. These exquisite building, undoubtedly, have one thing in common — a masterly mix of Renaissance and Art Nouveau, which became, later, a real «calling card» of the architect and a detail of his unique style.
References and Archives
- «Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavsky
- «Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». V. Pilyavsky
- «Buildings, structures, monuments of Odessa and architects». V. Pilyavsky
*about the building in Antique blog - Article about Odessa pawnshops history Alexander Uriev
- «Odessa: Architectural and historical essay». 2-d edition, 1984. V. I. Timofeenko
Authors
- Dmitry Shamatazhi, photographer and compiler
- Alexander Levitsky, art director, photographer and colorist
- Marina Tomenko, translator