Manasze Bławat and Hersz Muchnicki Tenement House

A three-storey tenement house at Piotrkowska 82 stands next to the building at number 78 and holds within its history a private synagogue and one of Łódź's longest-running lending libraries.

Cotton and linen factory at the start

In 1836, August Hentschel took over the plot numbered 517 in the property register, undertaking to operate a cotton and linen factory with three weaving workshops. In the early 1890s, the property passed to Manasze Bławat and Hersz Lejba Muchnicki, owners of a factory on the former Milscha Street, today Kopernika Street. For them a three-storey residential tenement building was erected, designed by Gustaw Landau-Gutenteger in 1891.

Collapses, fires and auctions

Already during construction, an internal wall collapsed, and shortly after the building was handed over the entire main facade developed cracks. The building was repaired and the owners took out loans from the Credit Association. By 1935 the building had caught fire several times, including in 1902, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1917, 1918 and 1935, and there were also auctions due to unpaid instalments. Despite this, the house register of 1920 still lists Bławat and Muchnicki as owners.

Shops and workshops of the interwar period

In the 1930s interwar period, the address housed a warehouse for Władysław Zylbersztajn's factory. The Łódź address book of 1937-39 lists under this number some fifteen firms, including a sewing machine and haberdashery warehouse run by Izrael Bürger, a watchmaking workshop operated by Gnesin and Company, textile trading partnerships, a pleating workshop by Rubinsztein and Hentschel, and a grocery shop run by Blumy Abramowicz.

Synagogue and lending library

In 1896, a private prayer house belonging to Manasze Bławat and Hersz Muchnicki was established at this address, accommodating about thirty worshippers. The synagogue was devastated by the Germans during the Second World War. In the courtyard building at Piotrkowska 82, during 2004-2011, the Łódź Book Lending Library operated, which had been founded as early as 1898, previously at other addresses. It closed due to declining readership and rising rent.

Practical information

• address: Piotrkowska Street 82, Łódź
• access: on foot via the pedestrianised street or by tram to stops in the city centre area; the street is closed to vehicular traffic
• what to expect: a rental tenement viewed from outside, traces of the former synagogue and lending library in the courtyard building