Prosp. Shevchenka, 21 – residential building

The currently existing house on former Akademichna street (now Shevchenka boulevard) 21 was built in 1909-1910 under a project drawn up by architect Jan Schulz for Dr. Bruno Pokorny and his wife Stanisława as a house for lease. It was, however, not the first house located on this plot. In a 1777 map of Lviv we can see that a part of the plot was occupied by a wooden house, rectangular in plan (conscription number 376). In a 1802 map the same house is designated under conscription number 429.

The first masonry house was built on this plot in the second half of the 1840s. The house, which was U-like in plan, can be seen in a 1849 cadastral map of Lviv under conscription number 456. A similar house is mentioned in a 1853 archival document in connection with a certain construction case (DALO 2/1/60). This stone house under conscription number 882 2/4 had two floors and a wooden shingle roof. At that time it was owned by Karolina Walsleben who had the sewerage pipes in the house repaired in the same year (DALO 2/1/60:1).

The next known owners of the house were Filipina Baczyńska and Tekla Ustianowicz (Baczyńska). In 1864 they asked the Magistrate’s permission to construct a masonry channel in front of the house. The permission was given on 30 April 1864 on the condition that the road would be restored to its initial condition after the work was finished (DALO 2/1/60:4).

From 1872 the house was owned by Krystyna Neumann, the widow of a tax commissioner. In 1873, in connection with a serious damage of a part of the shingle roofing, Kristina Neumann asked the Magistrate’s permission to make a repair. According to new building regulations, Lviv houses’ shingle roofs were in great numbers replaced with tin ones making the houses more resistant to fire. The Magistrate gave its permission for the repair on the condition that the owner would have made a fireproof roof by the end of July of the following year (DALO 2/1/60:8).

In October of 1873 Rozalia Schubert, the owner of the neighbouring house number 19 (conscription number 429 ¼; now this place is occupied by the prosecutor’s office building) filed to the Magistrate a complaint against Krystyna Neumann saying that the chimneys in a wing, which adjoined the house number 19 and was owned by the latter, were out of order: the smoke came out through the holes hardly stuffed with bricks. It was dangerous as the shingle roofing could easily catch fire. The building department committee confirmed the unsatisfactory condition of the chimneys and gave the owner 15 days to do the repair.

In 1885 a restoration of the house was carried out under the management of the town constructor Zwilling. In particular, the roof was covered with tin; the windows and the doors were reglazed; the vault was renewed in one of the premises from the side of the boulevard and in two premises oriented to the interior courtyard; two chimneys were repaired; the main façade was reconstructed etc. (DALO 2/1/60:15-).

In 1909 the house situated on former Akademichna street (now Shevchenka boulevard) 21 was owned by Dr Bruno Pokorny and his wife Stanisława who lived on Dlugosza (now Kyryla i Mefodiya) street 27 at that time. In the same year they decided to built a new stone house in the place of the old one. The project was drawn up by Jan Schulz, an architect and constructor. The new house was built using ferroconcrete constructions, in particular, for the foundations, for the boundary wall from the side of the house number 23 and for floors. The walls were laid chiefly of hollow brick. The calculation of the boundary wall constructions was made by Bronisław Kopniak. For the floors, the Hercules and Székely systems of the Budapest Székely ós Faragó company were used.

The construction was finished in 1910; on 25 August of the same year the owners asked the Magistrate for permission to move into the house.

As for today (2014), the house has preserved its residential function; the Park Avenue clothes shop and the Veronika confectionary restaurant are situated on the ground floor. Some service premises have been added to the right wing in the courtyard.