Vul. Zelena, 28 – residential building

Zelena street is one of the main thoroughfares of Lviv. It leads southeast from Ivana Franka through Stary Sykhiv down to the city edge. Its name (Ukrainian for "green") has not changed since the last quarter of the 17^th century, as the road passed among numerous groves. Back in the mid-19^th century it was a sparsely populated neighborhood, where palaces of the count families of the Zamojskis, Jabłonowskis, Russockis and others stood among greenery. The formation of the street housing dates back to the second half of the 19^th century. Settling along vul. Zelena, various artisans arranged their workshops there.

The plot, where building no. 28 was built, was formed in the early 19^th century. At that time it was large and had an elongated shape, rising southwestwardly in a wide strip from vul. Zelena to the Jacek Hill (now vul. Arkhypenka). From the west it was bordered by the grounds of the Zamojskis, then by those of the Dzieduszyckis (vul. Zelena 24), and further up the street, by those of the Jabłonowskis, where military barracks were located later. After the establishment of the conscription numeration system, the plot was assigned no. 603 ¼ (1802 map). Since then, a house has stood on the site, whose contemporary address is vul. Zelena 26. It was a homestead with residential and utility buildings. Its owners changed over time, but, according to archival materials, they all were engaged in baking bread, for which bakery ovens were built.

The oldest document in townhouse no. 28's construction file dates back to 1828. It concerns a wooden stable built by the then owners of the plot, Anna Wittemberg and Katarzyna Kreutz, on its border with the Zamojski's plot (conscription no. 759 ¼). In 1842, Alojzy Biernacki, the owner of a single-story building in this area, carried out its reconstruction for which a project was submitted (DAKI 2/1/4105:125). In 1851, the same Biernacki had a baking oven built (DALO 2/1/4105:123). In 1850, Domenik Schaller was mentioned as the owner of the plot. In 1869, Schaller built a stove in the house from the side of the palace already owned by the Dzieduszyckis. In 1870, Tekla Jordanowa bought the plot from Emilia Schallerowa, who was already a widow at that time, as evidenced by the contract of sale.

In 1873, according to another contract of sale, the homestead was owned by the couple of Jan and Magdalena Demeter. In 1874 a masonry barn and a baking oven were built in a building on the border with the Dzieduszyckis' palace; the oven project was designed by Aleksander Barański, a builder (DALO 2/1/4105). Thick smoke emitted by several baking ovens and a laundry, arranged in the Demeters' homestead, constantly disturbed their neighbor, Count Maurycy Dzieduszycki, a court counselor who bought the palace from the Zamojski family in the early 1870s. Dzieduszycki repeatedly appealed to the magistrate on the subject of poor-quality chimneys in the fire wall of the two-story shingled house no. 26, which was owned first by Barbara and later, from 1873 on, by the Demeters. Apart from that, all residents of this part of vul. Zelena were annoyed by the neighboring military barracks located on the pl. Jabłonowskich. Three battalions were stationed there, their cesspool situated right on the border with the homestead plots: there were no centralized sewers at that time.

In 1880, Jan Demeter became a widower with five minor children (Jan, Mariana, Józef, Michał and Karol); it was among them that he divided half of his land.

In the late 19^th – early 20^th century, there was a period of great development of Lviv. New streets with tenement buildings or whole new areas with manor houses were laid. Jan Demeter decided to build up his large empty field no. 603 ¼, apparently for the purpose of earning money. In 1901, he approached the magistrate with this idea. The owner received permission to build a new street on his long plot. The 368.4 m long and 13.0 m wide street project was designed by engineer Józef Jägermann (DALO 2/1/4105:119). It passed along the eastern edge of Demeter's field and connected ul. Zielona and ul. Św. Jacka (now vul. Arkhypenka). In 1901, a project was designed to parcel field no. 603 ¼ into separate building plots for further development. On the even side of the street, the plots were given "land" nos. 428/2 — 428/19 and nos. 428/1, 428/20, which were to be built up continuously.

In 1905, on the basis of a 1901 resolution, a submitted project and the funds paid, Jan Demeter was given permission by the magistrate to open a new street called Hetmana Tarnowskiego, as well as to build new townhouses there according to the submitted projects.

To carry out the work, Jan Demeter took a loan in the amount of 33,790 crowns from the Provincial Bank, pledging three plots allocated from his land (428/17, 428/18, 428/19). He conducted monetary transactions through his authorized representative Bronisław Ostaszewski.

The development of the parcels was carried out by their owners under the city's supervision; at the same time, a canal was laid along the planned street. The street and the 100 m long sewer were built by the Demeters at their own expense. Concrete works were done by the Giovanni Zuliani i Syn company from Lviv, the first factory of cement products in the province, which also engaged in the construction of concrete buildings.

Having purchased plots on the newly laid street, the owners had to pay an amount of money to the city treasury for the construction of their townhouses and the use of the canal. Apparently, these were wealthy Lviv residents, who commissioned projects of their houses from famous architects and sculptors. Thus, in 1908, two three-story tenement houses were built by Leonard and Magdalena Bisanz on the plots nos. 428/5 and 428/6 (DALO 2/1/4105:96-98).

After the death of Jan Demeter, the estate was divided between his children: sons Jan Zygmunt Kazimierz, Józef and Michał, as well as daughter Maria Wedronkowa, née Demeter.

The Demeters left the large plot no. 860/1 (cadaster) on vul. Zelena, where old one- and two-story houses stood, as well as a one-story wing, for their own townhouses, whose construction started after the old buildings were dismantled. Jan Demeter's son Michał received the magistrate's permission to dismantle them in 1908. It is obvious that the head of the family, Jan Demeter, who is mentioned in all relevant documents, had passed away by that time, so the construction work was continued by Michał. On November 18, 1909, Michał Demeter, marked as the owner of building plot no. 860/1 (cadaster) and ground plot no. 428/2, picked out of the real estate no. 603 ¼, received permission to build two tenement houses: a four-story corner one at vul. Zelena 28 and an adjacent three-story one at vul. Tarnavskoho 4. Projects of these tenement houses were designed by the then still young architect Piotr Tarnawiecki in 1909.

Demeter's townhouses were built in 1910. In the same year, Michał Demeter received permission to settle the house at vul. Zelena 28. The façades of this townhouse were lavishly decorated with sculptural plastics, and a bas-relief The Coronation of the Virgin Mary was placed on the bay window.

In 1914-1915, during the occupation of Lviv by Russian troops, it was in the Demeter townhouse that one of the eleven free kitchens for the citizens of Lviv, organized by the army command, was located. Beginning from the 1950s, there was a grocer's and a hairdresser's there; since the 1990s, part of the ground floor premises has been occupied by a pet shop and a veterinary pharmacy (facing vul. Tarnavskoho). Since 2008, the premises of the former grocer's shop have been occupied by a branch of the PJSC CB Nadra. In the premises facing vul. Zelena, there is a hairdresser's (to the right of the entrance) and the Galileo Cafe (to the left of the entrance). Yaroslav Dashkevych, a Ukrainian historian and archeographer, used to live in the house, and Valeriy Shalenko, a well-known Lviv stained glass artist, used to have his workshop there.