<p><br />

A 1908 photo depicts a storehouses<br />

and shops complex belonging to the Provodnik<br />

Russian-French company engaged in the production of rubber and<br />

gutta-percha things, as well as products for telegraphy. Rubber<br />

galoshes (overshoes) were one of the most popular articles of trade<br />

on bourgeois Khreshchatyk street, an invariable garment, an imported<br />

Western article. In the conditions when only main Kyiv streets were<br />

paved, and most marshes and streams had not yet been drained or<br />

directed to manifolds or spillways, galoshes were used by<br />

representatives of all strata of the city population. Moreover,<br />

production of waterproof footwear was a most difficult technical task<br />

at that time.</p><br />

<p><br />

Its architecture was interesting, in<br />

particular, that of the side avant-corps, constructed in the<br />

Classicist style with a refined attic. On the right one can see a<br />

very characteristic two-storied building with an attic level, which<br />

had an open brickwork façade and segmental windows. It was either a<br />

storehouse or even a shop. Industrial structures of this kind,<br />

belonging to the so-called “brick architecture”, radically<br />

changed the image of many European cities, beginning from Austria,<br />

England or France.<br />

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