The Neo-Renaissance building standing at 59 Jerozolimskie Avenue (formerly 53 Jerozolimskie Avenue) was built in the late 1850s and early 1860s as one of the first in this part of the city. Today, it is the oldest house in Jerozolimskie Avenue west of Marszałkowska Street and one of the older ones in the whole area.
It was built to a design by Antoni Kwiatkowski. From the late 1860s until World War I, the property remained in the hands of the Wojno family. The building originally had two storeys, but over the years it was extended by as many as three additional storeys. This probably took place at the end of the First World War, when the building changed hands.
59 Jerozolimskie Avenue. Photo: whiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski
During World War II, the house was severely damaged, being one of the few in the entire frontage on this section of the avenue. The tenement house suffered to such an extent that the two top floors, devoid of ceilings, were demolished. Shortly after 1945, the surviving part of the building was renovated and given the appearance of an intimate two-storey townhouse, much lower than the neighbouring period houses and distinctive from them. Shopfronts were then knocked down on the ground floor. In the courtyard are outbuildings of varying heights and decoration. The gate, which survives today, bears the monogram B.J., which is presumably an abbreviation of one of the owners’ names. Over the years, the building housed the British Council. Currently, most of the rooms in the building are empty and the building is awaiting renovation. The missing floors clearly disrupt the aesthetics of the entire frontage of the lavish and tall townhouses, so the house at number 59 is definitely in need of reconstruction. For years, huge and disfiguring advertising banners have been hung on the roof of the tenement in place of the missing floors.
Source: lapidarium.fundacja-hereditas.pl
Also read: tenement | Warsaw | Architecture in Poland | Curiosities | whiteMAD on Instagram
The tenement house in 1938 and 2024. Source: National Archives in Warsaw and whiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski
Jerozolimskie Avenue in 1969 and today. Source: anakstexasczecharticlesandphotos.com
Jerusalem Avenue in 1986 and today. Source: Flickr/Elmar
