The museum building
The house at 5 Universytetska Street, built in 1908 for the Kharkiv city pawnshop.
In this section
Building No. 5 on Universytetska Street was built specially for the Kharkiv city pawnshop on land that belonged to the City Society.
It was erected in 1908 to a design by the architect Borys Mykolaiovych Korniienko and stands at the end of the former Mykolaivska Square (now Constitution Square).
The building is an interesting architectural monument and one of the elements of the architectural ensemble of Universytetska Street that took shape over the 17th–20th centuries.
The main façade, facing Universytetska Street, has three tall storeys with rich sculptural decoration. The brick patterns follow motifs of Old Rus architecture.
These so-called pseudo-Russian details are combined with the rational structure of the building, a rusticated plinth and large windows. The façades on the opposite side are more modest. The rear part of the building, with service rooms, has five storeys. The plain windows without frames show the secondary role of this part of the house. The south façade has two monolithic reinforced-concrete balconies. The windows have openwork metal and wooden glazing bars.
For many years the building was used for its original purpose. In 1984 the premises were transferred to the Kharkiv Historical Museum. Now they house exhibition halls, a storage depot, a library, an assembly hall, and rooms for research and technical staff. The building is an architectural monument of local significance (protection number 432).
In 2011 reconstruction of the museum building began. The building was repainted in a “golden sand” colour and gained a glass extension with an arch.
