Trading House of the Moscow Merchants Society

In the place of a modern building on the corner of Maly Cherkassky Lane and New Square from the 17th century, the courtyard of the Yaroslavl Transfiguration Monastery was located . In the second half of the 18th century, the Nikolskaya pharmacy Gotlib Gilderbrandt was opened in premises rented from the courtyard. In 1777, he built for the pharmacy a building with an angled half-tube , which was destroyed by the fire of 1812 and then restored. The Moscow Merchant Society bought this house in 1883 ^[2] .

The new house was built by the architect Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel in 1909-1911. The building was an office and was intended for rental to members of the community. The premises in the house were rented by the Knopp Trading House, the Partnership IV Shchukin with Sons and other companies. Tenant advertisements were placed above the windows.

In the 1920-30s, the building housed the People’s Health Commissariat ^[2] .

The building is built in the style of rational Art Nouveau , and in its appearance you can consider the elements of future constructivism and formalism . The facade composition is based on rhythmically changing vertical and horizontal articulations in the form of large windows and semi-ellipsoid vertical inordinate pilasters . Occupying a large part of the plane of the facade, the windows are made possible by using the frame structure of the building. The vertical pilasters located between the windows at the level of the fourth floor are decorated with metal stripes with relief and crowned on the top floor with arched niches in which sculptural antique masks are located. The last, fifth floor is slightly smaller in height, the building ends with a cornice with curves at the corners ^[2] .