Tobiasz Tenenbaum Tenement House

The tenement house at Piotrkowska 38 occupies a plot that once extended as far as Wschodnia Street and for several decades changed hands before a brick building was erected here in the second half of the 19th century. From the 1880s onwards the property has been associated with the Tenenbaum name, from which the building derives its present name.

The first owners of the plot

According to the Declaration Protocol of December 1824, the plot at present number 38 was taken over by carpenter Jan Ludwik Heynemann, who in 1826 erected a two-family wooden house with a straw roof on the frontage. In June 1829 he sold the property to Jakub Weidemeier, a settler from Kolonia Nowosolna [Nowosolna Colony]. In April 1839 Jan Mees, married to Jakub's daughter Zuzanna Weidemeier, bought the property from the Baüter couple, and in June 1842 Mees sold it to Franciszek Städl. A document preserved from this period describes a residential front house with a tile roof, approximately 32.5 cubits in length, 22.5 cubits in width and 5 cubits in height.

From Städl to the Tenenbaums

Following Franciszek Städl's death, whose will dates from April 1855, the property passed to his heirs and in subsequent years was owned by, among others, Józef Rundstein from 1866 and Dawid Berndt from 1869. A document from April 1869 mentions a brick house on the property measuring 38 by 23 cubits, namely the building that stands there today. From the 1880s of the 19th century the property owner was Tobiasz Gutman Tenenbaum, whose name gave rise to the name under which the tenement house is known today. In May 1899 a serious fire broke out on the Tenenbaum family's connected properties.

Trade and crafts at this address

At number 38 there operated among others a manufactory goods warehouse, a worsted cloth factory, a plush factory and a woollen goods factory. Bookshops, a dairy and a company dealing in tea and colonial goods imports were also located here, as well as a weaving mill for manufactory goods. Such a mixture of textile crafts and small retail trade was typical of this part of Piotrkowska at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, similar to the neighbouring S. Dyszkina Tenement House and Dawid Berger Tenement House.

Neighbourhood

Across the street, at a short distance, stands also the Dawid Szmulewicz Tenement House with a characteristic Art Nouveau façade from 1904.

Practical information

• Address: Piotrkowska 38, Łódź
• Access: on foot along the Piotrkowska pedestrian mall, between Aleja Piłsudskiego and Plac Wolności
• What to expect: brick façade of a rental tenement house, viewed from the level of the pedestrian mall, with retail premises on the ground floor