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Some time ago, I had noticed my collection almost lacks window frames of Moscow. In an attempt to recover this drawback, I am happy to present you window frames from the Porokhovshchikov’s House. Aleksandr Ivanovich Porokhovshchikov was an entrepreneur, a builder, a political essayist, a sponsor and a public figure. In 1872, he built this house in the Starokonyushenny Lane, next to the Arbat Street in the very center of Moscow. In 1873, its project won a prize of the Vienna World Expo.

By mid 1990s, dilapidated house was in desperate need of overhaul.

Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov, Russian actor, and a great-grandson of that Porokhovshchikov, had leased the house for 49 years with a plan to establish a museum of his family there. Alas, this was not to happen: the actor died in April, 2012, and the house had not been inherited and returned again in the ownership of Moscow City

So far, Nerchinsk is the remotest place where I had photographed windows (except of Thailand, but that is a different story). For those who does not know: Nerchinsk, one of the oldest towns in the Trans-Baikalia, stands at the Chinese border. This unforgettable Russian-style house is an office of the local Forestry Department. It is said to have been built in early XXth century, which means its venerable age is more than one hundred years old.

 

It was perhaps in early 90s, that varnished but not painted frames began appearing. I am trying to generalize traces shared by frames made during last 20 years, and, to my surprise, frames of areas separated by great distances have a lot in common (this one was photographed in Serpukhov). Globalization, damn it, crawls in even here :(

Today, enjoy these stylish art nouveau frames from Yaroslavl! I just cannot recall any other place with so many frames carved in this style.

Sometimes, publishing of a part of a photo makes much more sense than of the whole of it! Why? Because the part shows rather curious details! Here, it is a fronton covered with protruding moldings  forming wooden scales – I have seen this method only in the Ivanovo Oblast (town of Gavrilov Yam, to be precise)

It is amazing how seemingly plain details may radically change the exterior of the wooden houses!

Just take this lucarne off the roof, remove its rainwater pipes set wide apart (to say nothing of its window frames and a girl with an umbrella), and you will see a rather ordinary house.

But with all these present, it is truly beautiful!

The very look of this fairy-tale double window frame from Chita wishes you a good working week! Double window frames with shutters (especially of arch type) are a genuine rarity. I am not sure if I had seen even ten of them throughout the whole of Russia.

I noticed one  in Tambov. The rest, I think, are all in Chita! And, because these blue frames with shutters are my personal symbol of good luck, I wish they bring luck for you, too!

This window frame from Vichuga, Ivanovo Oblast, was the second or may be the third one I photographed there. That was why I could not admire it then –  when you just drive into a place and shoot your first frames you have a feeling that others will be equally eye-catching. But carving style of Vichuga is totally different, and it is even more surprising to find such a gem!

Dear friends, this is your chance to save one of the wooden houses in Vologda!

As it does not have any decorative carving, it cannot be treated as a listed building, yet there is a possibility to include it into the historical buildings! And for a good reason: since 3^rd April till 21^st July,1921, the house had been a place of exiled An old Russian house where Great Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov lived, the most radical anti-monarchist of all the family, a historian and an author of some fundamental books on the Napoleon and Alexander I period.

Exiled Great Duke supported active contacts with foreign diplomats who were sent there during the Civil War. Joseph Noulens, the then Ambassador of France, and Count Louis de Robien, the Secretary of Embassy, frequently visited Nikolai Mikhailovich there and left detailed descriptions of the house interior, valuable for its saving as a historical building. The British had approached The Romanovs and offered them false passports to run away, but the royals declined the proposal…

And now the house is absolutely desolated.

Only 586 signatures sent to the Cultural and Cultural Heritage Protection Department of the Vologda Oblast Government can save the life of this house. Just join us!

Signatures are accepted here!

The longer I watch these frames, the more I like them. Such a plain elegance!