Musin-Pushkin House (Saint Petersburg)

The Musin-Pushkin House is an historic building in Saint Petersburg, located at number 104 on the Moyka River Embankment. It is also known as "A. I. Musin-Pushkin's House", and was built during the 18th and 19th centuries. The building's present appearance dates from 1848.

History of the site

The first known owner of the site was State Councillor Anisim Semenovich Maslov, the chief procurator of the Senate.Перепись дворов Адмиралтейского острова в 1737 г. // Российский государственный архив древних актов. Москва. Ф. 248. Д. 201 The site was later owned by Frantz Volodimerovich Gardner – a merchant who owned a rope factory in the Vyborgskaya Storona district of the city. In September 1755 the house was acquired by Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov – a wealthy metal-industry entrepreneur who owned factories in Nizhny Tagil – from Gardner's widow. N. A. Demidov owned the estate for nearly 30 years, until 1782.Купчая // Российский государственный архив древних актов. Москва. Ф. 285, Оп.1, Д.407, Л. 154The Axonometric Plan of Saint-Petersburg in Years 1765-1773 (by the P. de Saint-Hilaire, I. Sokolov, A. Gorikhvostov, et al.) Supplement. Saint-Petersburg, 2003. P. 93. In 1782 N. A. Demidov sold the house to Prince Grigory Potemkin, who immediately mortgaged it to Aleksei Musin-Pushkin.Купчая на продажу дома Потемкину, от лица которого «все дела представительствовал г-н Алексей Иванович Пушкин» // Российский государственный архив древних актов. Москва. Ф. 1267. Oп. 1. Д. 337 Л. 366. Musin-Pushkin acquired ownership of the estate in 1784 when Potemkin fell into arrears with his mortgage payments.Сведения к истории домов Нарвской и Адмиралтейской частей в Петербурге за 1745—1858 годы.// * Сведения к истории домов Нарвской и Адмиралтейской частей в Петербурге за 1745—1858 годы. // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф. 2263. Оп. 1. Д. 38. Л. 35. Ф. 2263. Оп. 1. Д. 38. Л. 35 Musin-Pushkin owned the mansion until 1798.Отъезжающие. // СПб Ведомости. 1798 г. С. 1695

The next owner of the site with all the buildings and the garden was M. A. Kusovnikov, a merchant. In the 1804 city register the plot was placed in the fourth Admiralty division of the first block. The plot was numbered 46 and valued at 50,000 rubles. By the time of the 1822 register, the estate was owned by E. V. Kusovnikova, and was valued at 65,000 rubles.Табель процентному сбору, подлежащему в доход С.-Петербурга с переоценки обывательских домов и мест. 1822 г. The house appears in Friedrich von Schubert's 1828 plan of the city, its appearance having altered slightly after the construction of an annex near the Moyka and a building along the left border of the plot of land as seen from the Moyka river. This building extended nearly up to the end of the plot and abutted the buildings of the Lithuanian castle. Two buildings parallel to each other stretched along Ofitserskaya ulitza (Officers' Street), where building 31 is now located. By 1828 that part of the estate was owned by the provisioning department of the Ministry of War, which remained its owner until 1842. In 1834 in accordance with E.V. Kusovnikova's will her granddaughter Yelena Petrovna Varentzova became the owner of the estate.Правительствующего Сената Санкт-Петербургских департаментов объявления к Санкт-Петербургским ведомостям. 1834. № 97, 4 дек. С. 29План по 4 Адмиралтейской части, 1го квартала // Сведения к истории домов Нарвской и Адмиралтейской частей в Петербурге за 1745—1858 годы. // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф. 2263. Оп. 1. Д. 38. Л. 35. Ф. 513. Оп.102. № 3677. Л. 159. That year street numeration was introduced, and the plot was designated as number 95 on the Moyka embankment.

In 1842, Y. P. Varentzova (Truveller) sold part of the plot to the Saint Petersburg City Duma, so that they could construct a street separating a prison building from local houses. In 1850 Y.P. Truveller made an official request asking St Petersburg's military Governor-General that the lane between her house and the Lithuanian castle be named Zamkovy (Castle lane). But the lane was named Tyremny (Prison lane) at the highest behest.Краснова Е. И. На Мойке против «Новой Голландии» (История участка домов № 104 по Мойке, № 31 и 33 по ул. Декабристов и № 1-5 по пер. Матвеева Ч. 1) // Петербургские чтения — 97.(Энциклопедическая библиотека «Санкт-Петербург — 2003»). СПб., 1997. С. 110. In 1850 the house was sold to court counsellor, baron Alexander Borisovich von Vietinghoff, who presented the estate to his daughters Elizaveta and Ekaterina in 1870. In 1882 baron Rikhard Pavlovich von Vietinghoff became the owner of the whole plot, which at that time was numbered 102 on the Moyka embankment.

The site was renumbered again in the late 1880s, becoming 104 on the Moyka embankment. In 1894 von Vietinghoff's three daughters became the owners of the house and the plot, and in 1897 one of the daughters – Alexandra-Elizaveta Rikhardovna von Einsiedel, the wife of a major in the Royal Saxon Army – became the sole owner. In 1913 she sold the whole site to the Council of the Reformed Church schools. In 1918 the houses on the Moyka embankment were confiscated "on behalf of the Commissariat of the city household due to the default in payment on the part of the owners, who hadn't paid city taxes in 1917 and 1918".Краснова Е. И., Лукоянов А. Н. На Мойке против «Новой Голландии» (История участка домов № 104 по Мойке, № 31 и 33 по ул. Декабристов и № 1-5 по пер. Матвеева Ч. 2. XIX-начало XX в.) // Петербургские чтения — 97. (Энциклопедическая библиотека «Санкт-Петербург — 2003»). СПб., 1997. С. 111.

Construction history

The view of the mansion with the garden was shown for the first time on Saint-Hilaire's plan: "a wooden house on a stone foundation with two risalits ("risalit" is a projection of a house) at the garden side is depicted in the back of the plot. On the right-hand part of the plot one can see that a one-storeyed stone annex facing the Moyka embankment is joined with the main house with a passage. There is a garden with a summerhouse, pavilions and a pond."The Axonometric Plan of Saint-Petersburg in Years 1765-1773 (by the P. de Saint-Hilaire, I. Sokolov, A. Gorikhvostov, et al.) Supplement. Saint-Petersburg, 2003. P. 93. A heavily sticking out projection with a broken pediment can be seen in the centre of the main façade. There is a symmetric staircase with four flights of stairs and a balustrade in the centre of the back façade. The main yard is located in front of the house, a pompous beautiful railing separates the yard from the Moyka embankment. The scientist and memoirist Yakob Shtelin wrote in his Notes of Arts in Russia about the unique iron portico, which the owner of metal-industry factories Nikita Akinfievich had set at his house on the Moyka embankment between both driveways to the yard from the street.Записки Якоба Штелина. Об изящных искусствах в России. В 2-х томах. Составление, перевод с немецкого, вступительная статья, предисловия к разделам и примечания К. В. Малиновского. М.: Искусство. 1990. С.165

In 1773, Demidov leased the house to a plenipotentiary ambassador of His Majesty king of Great Britain. In the concluded contract there was a description of the house: "... situated in Admiralty division on the Moyka river opposite stone storehouses for timber. There is a big rich wooden house with all furniture in the middle of the plot. There is a kitchen in the yard and annexes for household servants to the left of the house, near the Moyka river. There are two cellars – an ice-house and a winter cellar, a stable with ten stalls, a carriage house, ... this house has got a garden with different prolific fruit... "Купчая на сдачу внаём // Российский государственный архив древних актов. Москва. Ф. 285, Оп.1, Д.407, Л. 154

The plan of 1798 shows that Musin-Pushkin wasn't occupied much with alterations. The shape of one of the corners of the main building was changed a little, while the passage to the annex facing the Mojka and annex itself remained unchanged.Атлас г. Петербурга. 1798 г. План 4 Адмиралтейской части 1 и 2 кварталов. XXIV план // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф. 513. Оп.168. № 319 Л. 28 Looking at the engineering drawings from the City Council fund one can follow the further history of alterations of the mansion. The main house remained intact until 1913 when the right-hand part of the new building of the Reformation church school replaced it (architect A.A. Gimpel). A conservatoire music school is in this building nowadays (pereulok Matveeva 1; Matveev lane 1). The garden and the household structures didn't survive.

First considerable alterations of the mansion look are connected with the names of Yelena Petrovna Truveller, her husband engineer-captain Robert Ivanovich and his brother retired engineer-major Vasily Ivanovich. A new three-storeyed stone house – nine axes along the Moyka and seven axes along the lane – was built in the style of Classicism at the corner of the Mojka embankment and the newly laid lane. Simultaneously another house was built in eight axes, with more unpretentious decoration, abutting right against the three-storey house from the lane side.Чертежи Городской управы // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф.513. Оп.102. Д.3667. Л.163-178.

In 1847, the Truvellers decided to have storeys added to the L-shaped annex, which face the main site of the Moyka with two storeys, of the old house. They commissioned the architect N. P. Grebenka to do it. Simultaneously a new part of the house symmetrically replicating its structure was attached to the left side of the annex. Thus, the annex was completely included in the new house, only having the window decoration style changed from Baroque to Neo Renaissance. Two storeys were added to the part of the annex which faced the yard. But that part of the annex didn't lose its connection with the old wooden house on the stone basement. The Baroque window decoration of the back facade of the annex wasn't changed and has survived till the present day. A two-storeyed stone laundry built in the 18th century joins the old house with one side and the front annex with the other (the laundry building also has survived).Чертежи Городской управы // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф.513. Оп.102. Д.3667. Л.188-189Краснова Е. И. Алексей Иванович Мусин-Пушкин в Петербурге// Мусины-Пушкины в истории России. К 250-летию со дня рождения А. И. Мусина-Пушкина. Рыбинское подворье. 1998. С. 208Краснова Е. И., Лукоянов А. Н. На Мойке против «Новой Голландии» (История участка домов № 104 по Мойке, № 31 и 33 по ул. Декабристов и № 1-5 по пер. Матвеева Ч. 2. XIX-начало XX в.) // Петербургские чтения — 97. (Энциклопедическая библиотека «Санкт-Петербург — 2003»). СПб., 1997. С. 110

In 1848, the existing house on the left, the Truvellers had that house built in 1836, was completed with participation of the architect R. B. Berngard in the Classicical style. That house fully merged with Grebenka's house (with three storeys at the front facade and four storeys at the yard facade). Thus, the final look of the house was formed, and it has been unchanged till nowadays.Чертежи Городской управы // Центральный государственный исторический архив. Санкт-Петербург. Ф.513. Оп.102. Д.3667. Л.204-205.

Famous residents

Frantz Yakovlevich Gardner, the future founder of the porcelain factory in Verbilky village, lived for several years at his uncle in the house on the Mojka embankment. There is a reference to "a foreign merchant Englishman Frantz Gardner's mansion behind the river Mja" in 1737 Admiraltejsky (Admiralty) Island household census. The 1737 census indicates that Frantz Gardner was 40 years old and he had a nephew Frantz Gardner aged 27.Перепись дворов Адмиралтейского острова в 1737 г.// Российский государственный архив древних актов. Москва. Ф. 248. Д. 201