Lessons of the Lost Shopping Complex of the Late 19^th Century

The first (or the Old, as it was called later) Arcade was opened in 1875. Its owner was a merchant and a significant landowner from Kharkiv, V. Paschenko-Tryapkin. Starting from the mid-1850s he purchased all buildings on the city block with an area of 3040 square sazhens (equal to 13831 square meters), situated in the most prestigious location of downtown where the city was founded about two hundred years ago [16]. The city block was adjacent to Svyato-Pokrovsky Monastery (Monastery of Holy Intercession), facing University Street and the Cathedral Square that was decorated by a giant (about 89.5 m in height) bell-tower of Uspensky (Dormition) Cathedral, the main sacral building of the city. The site was situated on the slope along Kupechesky (Merchants) Descent, later renamed to Paschenko Descent, and was limited by Klochkovskaya Street at its lower western side. It was covered by structures of different height and function, among them commercial, which formerly belonged to other known merchant families. V. Paschenko-Tryapkin had undertaken a massive reconstruction of the city block while taking its active landscape into account. The houses of better quality were preserved without change, while many structures were rebuilt or replaced. The literature of the beginning of 20^th century remarked that buildings during said reconstruction were “constructed solidly and rather beautifully, by plans and under supervision of father and son Kolodyazhny” [16]. In 1858, the so-called “Jewish Rows” opened on the city block, “with the multitude of wholesale and retail stores selling all kinds of goods” [17]. In time, the entire city block was transformed into a kind of multifunctional complex, earning its name of “Big Block”. Stores and small consumer service enterprises with storage and utility spaces were concentrated on the ground level of buildings, situated in steps along Merchants Descent following its landscape. The hotel with restaurant, Jewish prayer house, lodgings for rent, as well as separate apartments were situated above [10]. The highlight of the whole complex was the Arcade, “with its magnificent haberdashery stores – a favorite place for the public to visit” as an eyewitness wrote in 1901 [17]. According to documentary evidence, it opened in 1875. Arcade was unusual in its architecture, memorable for its high gable roof structure, with metal elements bearing prolonged glass skylight, allowing the natural light into its galleries (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). This site in Kharkiv was described in “Passenger’s companion on the southeastern railways” of 1900 the following way: “The hanging iron bridge connects the hill above Merchants Descent to the Arcade, the largest four-story building, which opens to University Street with its opposite side. The buildings of the University are situated on the same street… while close by there is Uspensky Cathedral and the massive building of government offices… To the left of the cathedral, as University Street continues, it is flanked by the best stores with silver, gold, draper’s and haberdashery merchandise, as well as a separate wholesale cloth row” [18].

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

How, then, the Arcade was built in the body of the existing city block? The only universally accepted version to this time was published by a famous scholar of Kharkiv’s architecture A. Leibfreid, claiming that “the Arcade was situated in the south-eastern corner of the block. Its gallery consisted of two segments, conjoined at a right angle”. He also insisted that the Arcade had two entrances: one facing University Street, located at its sidewalk level, while the other was opening at Merchants Descent at the height of the third floor due to landscape elevation difference, and thus connected with the pedestrian alley of University Hill across the Descent via a metal hanging bridge [10].

However, according to the hypothesis presented by this paper, the Old Arcade had a more complex and interesting form while having undergone at least one reconstruction. An analysis of photos taken before the October Revolution of 1917, as well as photos from World War II revealing half-destroyed structural elements, allows authors of this paper to state that there existed another segment of gallery on the third floor, parallel to Merchants Descent (Fig. 3, Fig. 4). This segment had a third entrance at its end with an interior stairway leading from the lower part of Merchants Descent to the level of the main gallery and higher, probably reaching utility rooms on the fourth floor (Fig. 4).

Figure 4.

Why had that part of the gallery remained largely unmentioned? It is probably due to the fact that both A. Leibfreid and later authors based their study upon the more famous documental descriptions of the Arcade from the time of its opening. In the course of the first 18 years of its functioning, before it had been damaged in the fire, it indeed had only two perpendicular segments of the gallery serving as a passage through the “Big Block” to the University Hill. The map of Kharkiv dating 1916 depicted the Arcade as a two-part passage through the body of the block, which also could have influenced the previous understanding of the structure of the Old Arcade (Fig. 5). The later third segment of the gallery could have been perceived as a dead-end in a way; it could not have been displayed as a “street” because its additional entrance was through the interior stairway at the far side of the Arcade. As the study found out, this third segment culminated in a large panoramic window in the westernmost wall of the building, opening into a breathtaking vista overlooking Blagoveschensky (Good News) Cathedral across the river Lopan. Another window illuminating the stairway opened into a balcony facing Sergievsky Square below the University Hill.

Figure 5.

When did this third segment of the gallery and its corresponding entrance appear? “Youzhny Kray” (“Southern Region”) journal wrote the following in 1893: “The Arcade of Mr. Paschenko-Tryapkin was rearranged for the better in the aftermath of the fire. While the work on all burnt places is not yet completed, the main gallery that housed stores before the fire is already finished and presents itself as the most beautiful structure comprised of a row of luxurious shopwindows with the roof of glass above. Therefore the former darkness in most parts of this gallery is now replaced with an abundant light” [19]. It gives evidence that the Arcade did not have a skylight before reconstruction.

Authors analyzed pre-revolutionary images of Kharkiv’s city center (namely, postcards, guidebooks, books and any other materials containing fragmented depictions of a studied object) as well as the photos from 1941–1943 (showing the ruins of “Big Block”) with the aim of reconstructing the Old Arcade’s structural system. Results of the analysis testify that the building of the Old Arcade was of brick masonry with plastered facades. However, one of the older photographs shows part of an upper floor of Merchants Descent façade as being different from adjacent walls by color and texture (Fig. 6). It has become evident that the wall in question was constructed from timber. The later photographs showed this entire façade as plastered brickwork. It gives reason for authors of this paper to state that the Old Arcade was of mixed brick and timber construction.

Figure 6.

The timber construction was characteristic for Kharkiv from its founding in 1656. Only the singular most important structures in the city were erected with the use of stone and brick masonry, namely churches, some administrative and educational establishments as well as houses of the richest and most prominent citizens. While the number of these structures increased with time, wood remained the most accessible construction material. The comparably high cost of brick masonry in 19^th century determined the spread of mixed construction in different combinations of brick and timber. A practice was employed to veneer existing sturdy wooden houses with brick walls in order to improve their fire safety and to make them look more representative, for such structures were indistinguishable from more expensive brickwork analogs. Often the walls of the ground floor were made of bricks, while the walls of the second and the third floor were made of wooden logs or bars, usually plastered on the outside. This building practice was common for the Russian Empire in 19^th century due to the image of provincial towns at the time being defined by projects of “exemplary” (recommended for construction) facades of residential and public buildings [20]. Almost all of these “exemplary” facades series included designs for mixed brick and timber houses [21].

The fact that the owner of the Arcade was an accomplished merchant also speaks in favor of the mixed construction of the building. By purchasing the real estate of the entire city block and financing its subsequent reconstruction, he primarily expected to gain a substantial return on his investments from rent. Therefore, V. Paschenko-Tryapkin had to approach the choice of building materials with corresponding care and frugality. The study of buildings in other provincial towns of the Russian Empire of 19^th century also confirms this hypothesis [21]: specifically, that merchant and bourgeois classes, comprising the middle class of the urban community, often used the mixed brick and timber construction scheme while building their own houses, favoring cost before quality. Meanwhile, the aforementioned photograph of the Old Arcade with the darker wall section captured the moment of reconstruction in 1893, when the facing of the façade of the third segment was not yet complete.

It can be assumed that the floor structure corresponded to the construction methods and technologies of the time, being analogous to the corresponding structure of similar buildings in other provincial towns of the Russian Empire. The interfloor structure was traditionally supported by wooden beams of half-cut logs or bars with a diameter reaching 50 cm and length of up to 10 m. The two-layered structures were also employed as two layers laid upon the ceiling beams and floor beams with a ventilated gap between them. The wooden floor structure of the attic was practically the same as those of the lower floors. The rafter construction system for the residential and public buildings at the time consisted of rafters made of logs of different diameters supported by both exterior walls and interior posts [22]. The roof of the Arcade probably combined wooden rafters of this type over the stores with the transparent ribbed skylight made of metal profiles that was supported by the walls of the gallery below.

The second part of 19^th century and the beginning of 20^th century were the time of change for the architecture of the Russian Empire – when eclecticism and early Art Nouveau replaced the style of late classicism. Due to the growth of the urban population, apartment houses with shops on the ground floor and rooms for rent above were actively constructed. The monotony of the architectural image widely presented in architecture of the 1830–1890s was most apparent in these buildings. As noted by researchers [21], the large part of mixed urban development was based on the projects designed by specialists far from a professional architectural education, sometimes even the owners of the houses themselves. This meant that the image of buildings bore an imprint of vernacular architecture, transformed under the influence of architectural styles existing at the time. The architecture of mixed brick and timber apartment houses was eclectic at the studied period. The ground floor was often designed under the inspiration of classicism, while upper floors were influenced by one of the historic styles or decorated with some Art Nouveau elements.

The “Big Block” wherein the Arcade was built, largely consisted of houses of the aforementioned type. Its facades were influenced by “exemplary” projects. Meanwhile, the Arcade itself had its specifics. The monotonous rows of windows were framed by casings without pediments and frontons, while the bands of floor cornices were interrupted only at the asymmetrically located entrances to the gallery. At these places, the most elaborate décor was concentrated. Rusticated pilasters, a keystone and an attic decorated the two-story portal on University Street (Fig. 7). This portal was completed in 1875 according to the authors’ hypothesis. The study also points that two other portals facing the Merchants Descent were added later, during the reconstruction in 1893 (Fig. 8). They seemed to be repeating the main portal at first glance; however, they were rather different in details (Fig. 9). There, the rusticated pilasters were used for the décor of two lower levels only. Meanwhile, flutes bestowed elegance to pilasters of the upper levels, and the curve of the arch brought motives of early Art Nouveau to mind. The form of the metal balcony railing refers to the same source of inspiration. Similar railings can still be seen on Kharkiv’s buildings dating to that time (Fig. 10). The two portals facing Merchants Descent had different width. The narrow one was limited by the size of the existing metal bridge above Merchant Descent. The wider one can be explained by the presence of a wide interior stairway at the westernmost part of the building, connecting ground level to the main gallery three levels above.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

This very particular “multilevel shopping center on a complex landscape”, as we would have defined it today, existed until the 1940s when it was destroyed in the course of World War II. Its evident success motivated other merchants to create similar buildings, namely department stores and shopping arcades, in adjacent towns. Thus, merchant I. Kuleshov, impressed by an example from Kharkiv, constructed a department store (called an “arcade” at the time) in the downtown of Sumy at the beginning of 20^th century [23].

What had ensured the decades-long attractiveness of the “Old Arcade” for citizens and guests of Kharkiv? Certainly, a rich palette of retail merchandise, including luxury items, being concentrated in one place, played its part, as well as a multifunctional nature of the entire shopping complex of “Big Block”, capable of satisfying the multitude of consumer service needs of its visitors. However, the architectural and urban advantages of the Arcade were no less important for its success. It ingrained itself into the structure of existing downtown in an organic manner, preserving and adding to the ways of activity previously specific to the block. Thus the Old Arcade enriched urban life with new events, filled urban space with unusual impressions and emotions due to it been masterfully integrated with favorite pedestrian routes of Kharkiv’s inhabitants. Its main eastern entrance was facing the administrative and commercial center of the city, where the Noble Assembly and Guests’ Court were situated. To enter the building from the south, one would cross the metal bridge over Merchants Descent, connecting the Arcade with University Hill, a popular place of public festivities at the time, where an impressive view opened to the western part of the city [24]. Its lower entrance was linked to the commercial Sergievskaya Square, to the riverfront promenade as well as to the bridge leading to Blagoveschensky Market and Blagoveschensky Cathedral. To pass the sunlit Arcade with its unusual transparent roof, gazing at the splendid storefronts on both sides, to witness striking Kharkiv landscapes through enormous oval windows reaching the floor, to rise then above Descent atop the delicate metal bridge, where loaded carts and pedestrians scurry below – and, finally, to reach the edge of University Hill with its magnificent urban views… It must have been impressive indeed.