<p>

A 1908 photo depicts a storehouses

and shops complex belonging to the Provodnik

Russian-French company engaged in the production of rubber and

gutta-percha things, as well as products for telegraphy. Rubber

galoshes (overshoes) were one of the most popular articles of trade

on bourgeois Khreshchatyk street, an invariable garment, an imported

Western article. In the conditions when only main Kyiv streets were

paved, and most marshes and streams had not yet been drained or

directed to manifolds or spillways, galoshes were used by

representatives of all strata of the city population. Moreover,

production of waterproof footwear was a most difficult technical task

at that time.</p>

<p>

Its architecture was interesting, in

particular, that of the side avant-corps, constructed in the

Classicist style with a refined attic. On the right one can see a

very characteristic two-storied building with an attic level, which

had an open brickwork façade and segmental windows. It was either a

storehouse or even a shop. Industrial structures of this kind,

belonging to the so-called “brick architecture”, radically

changed the image of many European cities, beginning from Austria,

England or France.

</p><p><i>Olga Martyniuk</i></p>