It sounds incredible, but in the 1930s, a real boom in house relocation began in Moscow. Architects implemented large-scale projects that needed a place, but there was none. Sometimes a brick house stood in the way of a new project.
Most of these houses were destroyed, but there were some that were lucky - they were moved to a new location. MOSLENTA chose the most interesting relocated buildings and saw how they look now.
Moving houses is not a Soviet innovation: the moving of architectural structures has been known for a long time. Back in 1455, the Italian engineer Aristotle Fioravanti moved the bell tower of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bologna to a distance of more than 10 meters.
The church was interfering with the construction of a new city administration building, so the engineer enclosed the tower in a frame made of wooden beams and then moved it using a system of ropes and blocks. By the way, later Fioravanti took part in the construction of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. In Russia, the first experiments on moving buildings are known even before the revolution. In particular, in 1897, in connection with the expansion of the Nikolaev (now October) railway in Moscow, a two-story house was moved, which at first they wanted to demolish.
The building was completely new and belonged to the honorary citizen of Moscow, the owner of the cement plant, Evgenia Ivanovna McGil. The owner decided that there was no need to demolish the new building, because it could be moved. Moreover, McGill agreed to implement this incredible idea at her own expense. Engineer Fedorovich supervised the work. The building was freed of furniture, doors and window frames, stoves were also dismantled, after which workers cut the house and moved it using horse-drawn traction. The applied method later went down in history as "The method of moving Fedorovich".
This building was one of the first brick houses to be moved in Moscow. The house still stands in its new place at the address: Kalanchevskaya street, house 32/61. Unfortunately, the famous building is now abandoned.
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A real travel boom swept the capital in the 1930s. The plans for the relocation of buildings were so ambitious that in 1936 a special office was even organized - the Trust for the Moving and Dismantling of Buildings. Engineer E. M. Handel, who went down in history precisely as a "devotee".
The workers of the new enterprise were mainly metro builders who faced similar tasks when laying subway tunnels. After that, over several decades in Moscow, almost 70 houses were moved.
In 1937, Moscow city planners decided to reconstruct the Krasnokholmsky Bridge. The project was large-scale - they planned not only to rebuild the bridge, but also to create new ramps. It turned out that one of the residential buildings, which stood at the address: Osipenko Street, house 77 (today Sadovnicheskaya Street, house 77, building 1), interferes with future construction.
The house was in the shape of the letter "L", and one of its parts stood exactly in the place where the entrance to the bridge was to be built. The building was "young", built in 1929, so it was decided not to demolish it, but to divide it into two parts and move one of them, turning it 19 degrees.
The work was complicated by the fact that the house was standing on swampy soil, the foundation sagged even at the construction stage, which made it necessary to drive in piles and bring in soil. The move was dangerous, the head of the site, who carried out the work, even called it a gamble, but the head of the trust, Handel, ordered: in spite of everything, to continue moving the building.
This work was the first major order for the trust, and it was successfully completed. Interestingly, during the movement of the house, the tenants were not evicted or even turned off the engineering networks: the water supply, electricity, gas, sewage and telephone lines continued to function in the apartments. All communications were connected through temporary rubber tubes.
The divided buildings were later connected by an extension, in which a massive explosion took place in 1967, killing 147 people. This happened, probably due to the subsidence of the soil under the building.
The famous house still exists today, and people still live in it. Only now the five-story building has a different address - Osipenko Street was renamed into Sadovnicheskaya.
In the same year, another house was moved in Moscow, which prevented the construction of another bridge - Bolshoy Kamenny. The building on Serafimovich Street, 5/6 had to be not only moved, but also raised to a height of almost two meters.
The work was carried out successfully: the tenants, as in the case of the house on Osipenko, were not evicted. By the way, the transfer of this building formed the basis of Agnia Barto's famous poem "The House Moved".
Serafimovich Street, 5/6.
Before moving the house, it must be separated from the foundation. To do this, a trench was dug around the building, and then with the help of cables they "cut off" the building from the base. After that, the building was reinforced with special beams, then a chassis was created, which was already placed on special rollers. The rollers moved along pre-laid rails: usually they used winches that pulled the building forward, and jacks that pushed it from behind. Most of the time was spent on preparatory work, but the movement itself took place quite quickly.
Many buildings were destroyed during the expansion of Gorky Street (today Tverskaya). But some of them were not demolished for one reason or another. One of the “lucky ones” is the former Savvinskoye courtyard, which is now located at the address: Tverskaya, house 6, building 6.
Built in 1907, the Savvinskoye courtyard was the most significant and one of the most beautiful buildings on Gorky Street. Its façade was faced with glazed tiles and combined Art Nouveau and Baroque elements.
But during the implementation of the General Plan for the reconstruction of Moscow, it turned out that the architectural monument stands in an inconvenient place. It was decided to move the house. The relocation of the Savvinsky courtyard was one of the most difficult works of the Handel trust, since the building "weighed" almost 23 thousand tons, which is an order of magnitude more than the houses that had been moved before.
The preparations took over four months, and the house was moved in just one night. They say that the tenants were worried and asked to warn them in advance about the relocation of the building so that they could temporarily move with their relatives. However, the employees of the trust, confident in the success of the enterprise, deliberately indicated false dates.
As a result, the movement was carried out at night, and it was so smooth that most of the residents of the house noticed a change in location only in the morning. There is also a semi-legendary story that during the night movement in one of the apartments a tower of cubes, which a child assembled in the evening, even survived.
Today the building of the former Savvinsky courtyard is hidden in the courtyard of the Stalinist houses that were built around it.
Moscow. 1939 year. Relocation of the Savvinsky courtyard according to the reconstruction plan of Gorky Street.
Few people know that in 1940 the Mossovet building, where the Moscow City Hall is located (Tverskaya, house 13), was also moved. The landmark building had to be moved almost 14 meters due to the expansion of the street. The uniqueness of the work lies in the fact that the house was moved along with the basement, while the officials continued to work in their offices.
After the move, two more floors were added to the building of the Moscow City Council, which caused cracks along the walls. To avoid destruction, the workers had to reinforce the building with metal columns.
Relocation of the building of the Moscow City Council, 1939.
Even more difficult work was carried out when moving the building of the oldest in Moscow Eye Hospital, located at the corner of Gorky Street and Mamonovsky Lane. It was not only removed deep into the quarter, but also turned 97 degrees, as a result of which the facade of the building began to go out into the alley.
While moving within the walls of the hospital, work did not stop - both doctors and patients were there, operations were performed. Today, the building still houses an ophthalmological clinic.
During the Great Patriotic War, moving buildings stopped - it was necessary to restore the houses destroyed by the bombing. However, after the end of the war, such work continued.
For example, in 1979, the office house of the book publisher Sytin, which was blocking the recently built Izvestia building, was moved almost 30 meters. The house was moved towards Nastasinsky Lane along Gorky Street. During the move, part of the building was badly damaged.
1979 year. Moving the building of the newspaper "Trud" (Sytin's house) along Gorky Street. In the foreground is the place where the house stood.
Moscow engineers also moved the building of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. The relocation was carried out as part of the reconstruction of the theater in 1983.
The building was divided into two parts: the stage remained in one, and the auditorium in the second. The stage box was moved away, as a result of which the hall was enlarged. However, later it turned out that with such an arrangement, it would have been impossible to continue work on the reconstruction of the theater, since the remaining space was not enough to install construction equipment. Therefore, the stage first moved almost 25 meters forward, and then was moved back 12 meters.
This work was the last major experience in moving architectural structures in Moscow. Then perestroika broke out, and no money was allocated for such projects.
Author: Dimon