At 29 Targowa Street in Łódź stands a wooden house from the late 19th century. Over these more than 130 years, the building has managed to preserve its original form, making it one of the oldest buildings of its kind in the city today. It dates from a time when Łódź was only at the beginning of its great industrial revolution.
29 Targowa Street in Łódź – the creation of the house
The building was constructed in 1889-1891 as a residential building for several families. The initiator of its construction was Ignacy Szumpich, who used a typical design combining a residential function with business facilities. The house had 12 small units rented to people of different nationalities. Among the residents were Poles, Germans, Russians and Jews. 29 Targowa Street was the last built-up parcel of land in this part of the street, which, according to later documents, testified to the modest financial possibilities of the first owner. Around 1890, the property was purchased by a man named Zeidel, who opened a weaving workshop in the house and stored his goods in the attic. A few years later, Vladislav Szymankiewicz bought the property and turned it into a house for rent. He then had the walls and ceilings plastered. The following years saw the development of neighbouring buildings, which caused the windows on the side walls of the wooden building to be partially covered. This necessitated the reconstruction of the attic and the insertion of new facades on the roof.
Cinema House in Łódź
It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the first major renovation works were carried out. Around 1920, parts of the roof structure and its covering were replaced, replacing the tiles with tar paper. After World War II, the building passed to Nataliusz Owczarek, stepson of the previous owner. In 1981, the management of the house was taken over by Przedsiębiorstwo Gospodarki Mieszkaniowej in Łódź. Then, in 2000, the property was purchased by Irena and Janusz Kin, and seven years later the house was entered in the register of historical monuments. The new owners opened an engraving business deep inside the plot, while in the wooden house their son Adrian planned to create a place displaying his impressive collection of fossils. The man had amassed more than 40,000 specimens from various periods of the Phanerozoic. He dreamt of creating his own geological museum, which would become a unique institution in the country. The ambitious project to save the ancient house was interrupted by Adrian Kina’s death in 2012. The lack of a general renovation, which the building had not experienced for almost 100 years, caused it to deteriorate significantly.
29 Targowa Street in Łódź – construction and appearance of the building
The single-storey house with a usable attic was built on a rectangular plan. It is covered with a gable roof made of felt, formerly made of tiles. The interior has a two-bay layout with a hallway on the main axis. On the ground floor there are four flats, each consisting of two rooms. A wooden staircase leads to the attic, where there are further small dwellings. Above them is a non-utilitarian section with a visible truss structure and brick chimneys. The front and rear elevations of the house each have seven axes and are symmetrically arranged. The gables of the building are crowned with characteristic wide facades. The walls were made in a mixed tie-beam and summery-arched technique. Fragments of the former decoration are preserved in one of the corners. The windows installed in the building are secondary, but follow the original sash divisions.
Poor technical condition of a house on Targowa Street in Łódź
The house has been standing empty for many years and is now in urgent need of rescue. Its structure is founded on fieldstone foundations, some of which have been damaged over time, which has not left its stability unaffected. Water running off the leaking roof has led to further damage and flooding of many rooms. The poor state of repair is further exacerbated by the lack of efficient guttering and rotten formwork elements under the eaves. Inside the house, significant dampness can be seen in the walls. The most vulnerable areas are the corners and the junction between the roof slope and the facades. Plaster has fallen off in many rooms and the floors are damaged and covered with debris. Rainwater is also seeping into the unused part of the attic and causing progressive damage to the ceilings. All this creates a very sad and not very optimistic picture. The Łódź authorities have one last chance to save the building.
The significance of the building in the landscape of Łódź
29 Targowa Street is a unique example of wooden, residential and commercial buildings from the end of the 19th century. Very few such houses have survived in Łódź to the present day. The building has retained its original layout and many original structural elements, making it an important testimony to the stage when the city was just preparing for the flourishing textile industry. Despite its deplorable state of repair, the property still allows one to read the former appearance and the way the building was shaped at the end of the 19th century. The further fate of the house is in great question. Will Łódź retain another trace of its own development from over 130 years ago?
Source: zabytek.pl
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The house in 1985 and today. Source: monument.co.uk/whiteMAD and Redman Reactivation/facebook
