Work has been completed to restore a tenement house in the Jeżyce district of Poznań to its former glory. The building is located at 2 Roosevelta St. Today, the building is distinguished by its renovated sand-coloured façade.
It is a building from the end of the 19th century. The tenement house on Roosevelta Street was built before 1897. The building is part of a larger complex consisting of three townhouses. They originally housed railway workers, as the construction was commissioned by the Railway Clerks’ Building Cooperative (Wohnungs-Bau-Vereinigung der Mittleren-Eisenbahn-Beamten zu Posen eGmbH).
The construction of the magnificent complex of townhouses was part of the policy of Germanisation of Poznan at the time. The then luxurious buildings were intended to encourage German officials to settle in Poznań. Six families lived in the tenement at number 2 alone.
It should be recalled that today’s Roosevelt Street functioned as Buddestrasse from 1904 – after the name of the Prussian railway minister Herman von Budde.
The building at Roosevelta Street in Poznań is listed in the register of historical monuments. Financial support for its restoration was granted by the City Hall. The work was also carried out with the support of the Municipal Conservator of Monuments. During the work, the walls were reinforced, cracks were repaired and architectural details were renewed. The external staircase was renovated and the lightning conductor installation was replaced.
The building BEFORE the makeover:
The townhouse has a rather modest façade. One will not find fancy details here. Its characteristic elements are two symmetrically located two-storey bay windows in the extreme parts of the building. These bays are covered by pyramid-shaped tower roofs.
In addition, the windows at ground floor level, with the exception of the two outermost windows, have been converted into shop windows and entrance doors. The ground floor has been decorated by pasting painter’s tape on suitably protected polystyrene and has been cut off from the upper storeys by a clear horizontal cornice accent, ” reads the announcement on the poznan.pl website.
In addition, decorative window bands and pilasters on the first floor reinforce the impression of harmony.
The municipal subsidy for the renovation of the building amounted to PLN 230,000.
photos: UM Poznań
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