Another downtown property has been added to the register of historical monuments. The tenement house at 61 and 61A Hoża Street in Warsaw has been entered, along with the grounds of the property, in the register of immovable monuments of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. The historic building from the end of the 19th century, designed by Aleksander Woyde, is one of the few in the area to have escaped serious damage, which makes its architectural value all the more significant and it is now subject to legal protection.
The building was erected between 1882 and 1886 to the order of Boruch Kutner, at a time of intensive development in Warsaw’s Downtown. At the time, the area around today’s Emilia Plater Street, then called Leopoldyna, was still considered a suburb. The three-storey building with two front wings – from Hoża and Emilia Plater Streets – and a rounded corner, is characterised by moderately decorated elevations in the Neoclassical style. The basement is decorated with strip rustication, while the upper storeys are decorated with modest window frames and balconies with cast-iron panels and wrought-iron balustrades. The gate passage, preserved almost intact, leads to the elegant staircase, where one can still admire the wooden steps and cast-iron balustrades with rosette and palmette motifs.
The tenement house at 61 Hoża St. Photo: WUOZ in Warsaw
During the Second World War, the tenement was quite lucky, as it avoided the major destruction that affected many other buildings in this part of Warsaw. The Germans, after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, systematically destroyed the city, but Kutner’s tenement along with several neighbouring buildings remained almost untouched. As Zbigniew Książczak, who was forced to work on looting and destroying Warsaw tenements, recalled, the Germans probably ran out of time to burn the building down. Unfortunately, the tenement suffered greater damage after the war, when the large flats were divided into smaller ones, creating so-called kolkhozes. The architectural details that adorned the façades were scuffed and the building fell into neglect. For many decades, the facade of the building intrigued passers-by with the negative of the decorations that once adorned it, leaving only traces on the grey plaster. It was not until 1995 that an attempt was made to restore its former decoration.
The building at 61 Hoża Street in the 1980s and today. Source: “Spotkanie z Zabytkami” nr 4 (14) 1983 and Jarosław Loretz
For many years the tenement house belonged to Aleksander Markov, and in the interwar period it passed to spouses Leonard and Kazimiera Rettinger. Leonard Rettinger, a metalworker by profession and a participant in the independence movement, died in 1931, leaving behind his widow Kazimiera, who died in October 1944, exhausted by her post-insurgency wanderings. The Rettingers’ son, Stanisław Maciej Rettinger, a cadet in the First Light Cavalry Regiment, was killed on 1 August 1944, without even managing to take part in the fighting. Nevertheless, the family managed to survive these difficult times. Also living in the tenement in 1939 was Edward Rettinger, a lawyer and solicitor, who survived the war and died in 1953.
After the war, the property was nationalised and taken away from its rightful owners. For years, a WSS Społem grocery shop operated on the ground floor. Today, the tenement is privately owned and is known mainly for its fashionable Pacific Bar.
Source: Mazovian Voivodeship Historic Preservation Officer, miastarytm.pl
Read also: Warsaw | Monument | Curiosities | Tenement house | Elevation | Architecture in Poland
