Micberg Family Tenement House

At number 59 on Piotrkowska Street stands a two-storey tenement house built in the early 1880s by a manufacturing family recorded in historical documents as Mintzberg (also found in the form Mincberg). The building bears their name to this day, though over successive decades it changed owners as frequently as other tenements in this part of the street.

From a weaver from Bohemia to the Mintzberg family

The plot under present-day Piotrkowska 59 was taken in August 1833 by weaver Ignacy Hauptfleisch, who had come to Łódź from Bohemia. In December 1851 he sold the property to Wacław Falzmann - at that time a wooden house with a shingled roof still stood here. In 1867 Falzmann resold the estate to Josko Mintzberg, and in a petition to the Magistrate from June of that year a brick house on the front was already mentioned.

Construction of the tenement in 1881

In the early 1880s the Mintzbergs erected a two-storey front tenement house according to a design by architect Edward Creutzburg from 1881. After Josko's death his widow, Tauba Mincberg, became the owner, and in 1890 rights to the property passed to her heirs. That same year the estate briefly belonged to Berk Rosenblatt.

Wool factory in the courtyard

Around 1894 the property was purchased by spouses Gitla and Jakub Warchiwker, who ran a factory producing woollen and part-woollen goods in the courtyard. The 1920 house tariff still lists Jakub Warchiwker and the successors of Gitla as owners. In the 1920s other companies connected with the textile industry also operated at this address: a warehouse for Jakub Kamiński's wool factory and company, a warehouse for M. Szmulewicz's mechanical weaving mill, and a head office for R. Kurc's woollen materials factory.

Neighbours on Piotrkowska

A few numbers further on, at 56, stands the Robert Schweikert tenement house, and in the other direction, at 65, the Szai Rosenblatt tenement house. On the other side of the street, at number 51, is the Izrael Poznański tenement house, and a little further towards Wolności Square stands the former Hotel Victoria.

Practical information

• Address: Piotrkowska Street 59, Łódź
• Getting there: the building stands directly on the Piotrkowska pedestrian mall, in the heart of Łódź
• What to expect: a two-storey tenement house from the 1880s, one of many manufacturing ventures on Piotrkowska