Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa

ul. Łódzka 6

Exhibitions in the house no 6:

 -"Reconstruction of workers housing from the 20s and 30s of the 20^th century"
-"A workshop chamber in the Weaver's House"

-"In Mrs. Goldberg’s kitchen"
-"Our wardrobe"

"A reconstruction of typical interiors of a craftsman house in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century"

ARCHITECTURE

Until the end of the first quarter of the 19th century Łódź had solely wooden architecture, which did not differ much from peasant's cottages. In 1829 there were 767 inhabitants and 106 wooden houses on carcass construction; even the buildings of the local town hall and church were wooden.

In 1821 the Government Commission for Internal Affairs and Police ordered Rajmund Rembieliński, president of the Commission of the Mazovian Voyvodship, organization of factory settlement. In 1821-1823 on the area of the neighbour government villages and granges, the settlement for clothiers called New Town was marked, and, a little later, in 1824-1828 a settlement for cotton and linen weavers and spinners called Łódka, which was incorporated into the municipal territory. Numerous immigrants from Wielkopolska, Silesia, Lubuski Region, Czech and Saxony flowed to these settlements encouraged by considerable abatements, privileges, promised government support as well as protective customs duties. In order to guarantee dwelling places and conditions to work for them action was undertaken to build government houses. Toward the end of 1823 in the settlement New Town in Północna street, six first two-family wooden houses were erected, in which arriving clothiers were accommodated. After Łódka settlement was established, in 1824 houses for cotton-linen weavers was begun. Those were both wooden and brick houses. Wooden houses, the size of which was 14,2 x 6,4 x 2,3 m were shingle-roofed. Brick houses with only ground floor and vestibule on the axis, were a little bit bigger  (15,0 x 8,1 x 2,9 m). On one side of the axis, there was living part including room and recess, and on the other side  a workshop. Moreover, in 1825-1826 31 small houses for linen spinners were erected in settlement Łódka in the streets: Wólczańska and Przybyszewskiego. Their size was 9,1 x 4,6 m built in spandrel beams, with thatched roofs, with vestibule, which lead to recess and a single bigger room. These houses were not preserved until our times, we know them from designs by Józef Maliszewski.

The last row houses were erected in 1828 in the settlement Ślązaki established for linen weavers brought from Silesia by Tytus Kopisch. He was obliged to build for them 42 houses in Przybyszewskiego and Przędzalniana streets. He had 17 houses built size 9,5 x 8,0 m with recess and two rooms as well as one room in the attic. Weavers themselves erected 11 houses more, houses on the remaining allotments were built in the 1830s and 1840s. One of these houses situated in Przybyszewskiego street number 115 was survived until 1960s.

In general in the 1823-1828 95 government houses were erected in Łódź according to typical designs, which included living workshop spaces, i.e. they fulfilled two functions – residential and production. They were also rented to arriving craftsmen until they built their own houses. They also had the possibility to purchase them paying in installments within 6 years.

Government houses were the pattern for private buildings and were strongly supported by the government by way of loans, free concessions for timber for building purposes as well as purchase of bricks at production price. In declaration protocol signed by immigrants, one of the articles included the following promise: Foreign spinner, will be granted a building grounds to erect of own means according to the normal drawing, will obtain without payment from the woods owned by the Government timber necessary to erect the above named house and will obtain for this purpose a loan in the of 200 Polish Zloties… Designs for these houses, granted to the settlers without payment were made by builders from Łęczyca region – initially Krzysztof William Dürring and, since 1827, Ludwik Bethier. They were widely made still in the 1840s.

Houses erected according to these designs were patterns for the architecture in Łódź for many years to follow. Erected to meet the needs of weavers-craftsmen, as a consequence of development of industry, they lost their manufacturing function and remained dwelling-houses.

According to the Description of the City of Łódź by Oskar Flatt, in 1851 Łódź, an important industrial centre counted 18.190 permanent inhabitants and 1.018 houses, including 189 brick houses and 829 wooden ones, which was 74,1% of the whole. Fifteen years later, the number of inhabitants in Łódź grew to 40 thousand, number of houses to 2.288, including 356 brick ones and 1.932 wooden ones (84,4%).

In the 1860s and 1870s Łódź noted a serious growth of brick houses. Slowly, wooden architecture disappeared from the municipal streets replaced by several story high brick tenement houses. However, wooden pieces were found in every street of the city, even in its representational artery – Piotrkowska street. Replaced in central parts, they still dominated in the suburbia regions, especially those not included administratively into the municipality, i.e. Bałuty, Chojny or Widzew. Relatively solid houses were built there, several storey-high, meant for living spaces for workers; various primitive barracks for the poor.

The last reference to the former weavers houses from the first half of the 19th century was the district around Widzew Manufacture erected ca. 1900. It included 158 free-standing wooden houses size 14,0 x 9,3 m, solely with ground floor, spaces for living in the attic, a small garden, wells, sanitary equipment and cubby's in the courtyard. They were inhabited by six families – four in the ground-floor and two in the attic. This district functioned until mid-1970s, until these houses were pulled down.

Also in inter-war period, wooden architecture formed an important part of the residential substance of the Łódź municipality. Census in 1921 showed that there were only 3.814 wooden houses, which makes 28,0% of the whole building substance including 1.945 ground-floor (51,7%), 1.524 one-storey (40,0%), 230 two-storey (6,0%), 21 three-storey (0,6%) and even 2 four-storey ones. Still in the 1930s ca. 30% of new houses were made of wood.

Many wooden houses were pulled down during the II World War and in the period of time following it. Numerous wooden pieces on the area of the former ghetto were pulled down. General census from December 1960s showed that there were 9.665 wooden houses, where 85.200 people lived. This numerical growth in relation to 1921 was the result of incorporating into the borderlines of the city of Ruda Pabianicka and nearby villages, where wooden architecture prevailed.

Wooden houses were generally primitive, with no water or sewage system or any other comforts, meant for the poorest tenants, therefore their number diminished considerably in the 1970s, both in the city centre and in the peripheries. They were pulled down in order to replace them with brick houses and to broaden the streets. Never subject to overhauling or refurbishment or modernization they were far from the new living standards; left by the tenants they decayed and went into ruin. The only chance to preserve examples typical of old wooden architecture in Łódź was to transport them to the open-air museum.

The house, in which the exhibition is organized, was erected most probably in the 1860s in the property of Karol Bennich, factory owner, which was situated in Wólczańska street number 68. It was erected in the factory and from the very beginning it was a living space – it may have been occupied by the owner and later, they were rented by employees of his mill. On the ground floor there were four apartments with kitchen and room, each of the total surface equal 30 square meters and four separate rooms in the attic, each with the surface of 19 square meters. The building had no sewage system and was equipped solely in electricity.

Its only graphic presentation is included in the advertisement of Bennich placed in Jubilaumsschrift der Lodzer Zeitung from 1913.

Senior Curator Piotr Jaworski,
Department of the History of Textiles

LIVING CONDITIONS

In inter-war period Łódź was a homogeneous municipality in its proletarian character. Big industry workers, of the Polish origin, constituted the most numerous group (almost 70% of the whole population). Small tradesmen and shop owners were the second largest group (majority of them were Jews) and the smallest groups were craftsmen of various nationalities and bourgeoisie (not more than 2%) – mainly German origin, rarely Jewish, sporadically Polish.

Quick development of industry and equally quick growth of population in Łódź were the result of considerable disproportions between the dimensions of dwelling substance and the number of inhabitants of the city. On the average, density of population was high, in 1921, rate of occupancy amounted to 2,3 persons per room.

Until 1939 small low standard dwelling places prevailed with one (15 to 25 square meters) or two rooms (ca. 35 square meters). These places did not have water – people had to go and fetch it from street sources or wells situated in the courtyards. Cubbies and toilets were situated outside. Senior clerks and office workers lived in multi-room flats with conveniences, formen or skilled labourers – two-room flats, other lived in one-room with no amenties. Even acquiring one's own house did not automatically mean expanding dwelling space – part of the rooms was left for renting. House was a kind of security for old age or in case of unemployment.

Such an apartment was used by a family with members of two or even three generations; sometimes relatives and subtenants called sheltered were taken under the roof to enrich the family budget. Young married couples would live with the family of one of them. Sufficient funds accumulated for the apartment and the furniture was the precondition of ”own home”.

Small dwelling places used by families including many persons largely affected the number of pieces of equipment and their arrangement. They were arranged in such a way so as to make movements possible. Therefore, pieces of furniture usually stood on the walls.

In a one-room dwelling space two functional zones were separated – kitchen and room. This was done by an appropriate placing of furniture and hanging curtains. Various combinations were applied. Sometimes wardrobe and cupboard stood with their backs facing each other or they stood in one line so that they touched walls of the rooms with their narrower sides – between them curtain hanging on a rope, wooden stick or metal bar. In this way, kitchen stove and the equipment assembled on it was isolated from the rest of the room. This part had the character of a kitchen space. The rest was used for eating, sleeping and visits.

Sometimes. also in two-room dwelling places partitions were made to separate the kitchen part where the stove stood. The rest of the space was meant for the family life – eating on workdays, visits of neighbours, children did their home-work there, etc. Also, hygiene was made in the kitchen. Not without importance for the defined pattern of arranging the space was the place, where windows and kitchen stove were – it affected functional zones of the dwelling place. In apartments with one window, kitchen was situated, where there was no window.

Dwelling places were heated with tiled stoves; the most frequent was the kitchen stove, which was equipped in additional heater – an additional tiled surface, which heated also the room. Yet, it was not always sufficient protection from cold, therefore small iron cast stoves with long metal tube linked with the chimney were placed in the room. They gave pleasant warmth very quickly.

Initially, the source of light were paraffin lamps; usually there were 2-3 such lamps in the house, with one of them more decorative in character. Since mid-1920s electricity was implemented and chandeliers were hanged under the ceiling.

Walls were painted using stencils with patterns representing flowers, leaves, fruits, birds, geometrical motives. The favourite ones showed roses, palm leaves and birds. Usually 3-4 stencils were used (but there were also 12 of them sometimes). Pattern finished ca. 10 cm from the line where the two walls met. Often this place was underscored with a vertical stripe in colour identical with the one running under the ceiling. Towards the end of the 1930s walls were painted with roller. Popular colours were: peas, sand, pink and light blue. The ceiling was always white.

Until the the 1930s floors were made of unpainted planks, which were, in later years, painted with oils. Room floors were covered with floor coverings, usually placed near the beds, around the table and in the passage leading from the kitchen to the room. In the kitchens – from entrance door towards the stove. Starting from mid-1930s, in the kitchen floor was covered with linoleum, in various shades of bronze, with geometrical patterns, which covered the central part of the floor.

Furniture was purchased usually once in a life, in the moment of ”arranging one's own home”. Better-off families commissioned furniture in carpenter workshop, the poorer purchased second-hand pieces. Also furniture sets made of oak timber were offered: 2 beds, table, wardrobe and mirror. Kitchen furniture were painted with oil paints in the colour of ebony or white.

Equipment of majority of workers' dwelling spaces was modest. Basic objects in the room of one-room apartment were beds, table, chairs and wardrobe for clothes (sometimes, instead of wardrobe, there was a hanger covered with bed sheets). Additional equipment was a hanging mirror in wooden frames.

The number of beds depended on the number of persons in the family. Usually, several persons slept in one bed. Sometimes, there were straw mattresses placed additionally on the floor. Cradle or infant bed was placed near the bed, where the mother slept. Often children slept with their parents.

In two-room apartments the functional division was determined by the architectural one. In the room, apart from the equipment described earlier, there was another table (one in the kitchen), pier glass – a mirror in wooden frame fixed on the case with additional cases or pillars on the sides, room cupboard, rack and couch. In these apartments one could place 2 beds with two night tables.

The basic element of the kitchen was tiled kitchen core or iron stove. Nearby, there was a coal box and a case on which tubs with water used to stand, sometimes wash-basin and a tub for dirty water. If there was a table, it was covered with oilcloth. Often there was a shelf fixed under table-top, which was used as an additional storage for jugs, pots, pans, and even vegetables. It was often covered with short curtain.

Cupboard was a regular equipment in the kitchen; plates, cups, cutlery and food products were kept there. Corn products and spices were stored in faience containers placed on hanging shelves or on the stove shelf.

In the kitchen there was also a washing corner. In some houses it was a wash-basin placed on high metal stander and, standing below it, high metal jug for fresh water. In majority of cases wash-basin was on the case, the so-called water case standing near the tub with water, which was placed on the stool, when someone wanted to wash.

Over the wash-basin, there was a shelf with a stick to hang towels – one embroidered for decoration purposes and 1-2 towels for the whole family to use, which were changed once a week on Saturday. Near the towels, linen pockets were hanged for scissors, shaving accessories and combs. Ordinary soap and soda were used for washing, which made hard water soft. Perfumed soap was a luxury in those times. Daily hygiene was limited to face washing with cold water. Taking a bath was organized once a week - on Fridays or Saturdays or before great feasts (children were bathed more frequently, especially infants). A bath-tub or a wash-tub was brought from a cubby and was placed in the centre of the kitchen. Small children bathed first, then other members of the family.

Bed sheets were changed every 4-6 weeks, underwear 1-2 a week (there was not many elements of underwear in the wardrobe). There was no custom of changing underwear for the night. Washing things required much time and effort  first, it was soaked for 2 days in the wash-tub, and then it was washed on a wash-board. In the summer underwear was dried in the courtyard, during the winter in houses or attics, if they were not used as dwelling-places.

Cleaning was limited to making beds and placing straw mattresses under the bed. Once in a week, on Friday or on Saturday, floors were scrubbed. On sunny days pillows and feather bed quilts were left in the windows or aired outside.

Equipment of the interior was complemented with various decorative elements, displayed usually on Sundays and on festive days. These objects were solely for decoration, but also had some prestigious meaning: bed quilts, pillows, tablecloths and serviettes (embroidered or crocheted), gypsum figurines, glass objects imitating crystal, pictures embroidered on canvas and landscapes – oil-prints representing flowers, landscapes and very popular canvas textiles with various sentences.

Paper decorations were in general use – transparent stripes with cut out borderlines, which were fixed to shelf borders, blotting paper flowers, shelters for flower pots made of blotting paper. Since the 1920s white curtains of threads were hanged as well as short cotton curtains in floral patterns.

In the 1930s viscose or cotton satin curtains were in vogue – most often pink or in the colour of gold. On window sills and on wooden pillars flower pots with flowers were placed  ferns or asparagus and in the windows – geranium, myrtle or fuchsia.

Objects of religious cult played an important role in living space: small altars and religious paintings presenting usually Holy Mary and Jesus Christ. Such paintings were hanged over beds and near small altars. Altars were arranged on cupboards, shelf or wardrobe. It was usually a metal cross, figures of saints and a candlestick. In the kitchen pictures representing Holy Mary Nourishing the Child. In entrance door, small bottles with holy water were hanged and over the door – a small cross.

In equipping the apartment one can observe imitations of designs and patterns used in well-off houses, which can be seen in furniture and room decoration – paintings, clocks, vases and serviettes. The element, which distinguished houses of head of worker sections and qualified workers from non-qualified workers, where the so-called bed covers, i.e. quilts for beds and tablecloths. Those were expensive things and only richer people could afford them.

Due to narrowness of living space, free time in the evening after work was spent outside, in the courtyard with neighbours. People would sit on chairs taken from houses, read newspapers, play cards, women embroidered or crocheted. Sometimes someone brought harmonics or accordion, songs were sung or stories were told. During the winter the social space was the corridor and staircase.

On Sundays trips to the local wood were organized, walks in the park, dancing parties, concerts of factory or fire brigade orchestras.

The most common distraction for workers was the cinema – mainly due to low ticket prices. Circus was also popular – both among children and adults. It used to come to Łódz once a year – in the autumn.
Seasonal amusement in the summer were merry-go-rounds and shooting-ranges.

Senior Curator Lidia Zganiacz,
Department of Folk Textiles