The territory on which the complex is located was part of the Small Ostrog, a fortification structure of medieval Nizhny Novgorod. Presumably, the chain of wooden-earth fortifications of the ostrog was built from the 1360s, and according to some data, one of the wooden towers (the St. George Tower) was located on the site of the estate, with two steep descents leading from the banks of the Volga River to its gates. On the other side, Yegoryevskaya Street, running along the line of fortifications at an angle from the Proiskhozhdensky (Exaltation of the Cross) Monastery, which was located near the Chkalov monument, ended at the tower. The wooden fortifications of the Small Ostrog were dismantled by the beginning of the 18th century, but the earthen rampart remained. The territory was for a long time the outskirts of the city. The edge of the high Volga bank, cut by ravines, was inconvenient for construction.

Plans of Nizhny Novgorod from the Classicism period of the second half of the 18th to early 19th centuries did not affect this area: until the 1830s, the slope and hillsides were occupied by gardens, baths, and service buildings of estates located on Zhukovskaya (Minina) Street. On the 1792 survey plan, a small wooden development is indicated along the medieval rampart. Most of the land was undeveloped. To the east, the plot adjoined the yard and garden of the sub-chancellery clerk Ivan Zhitenin. Behind the rampart, a stone-wooden house with a garden belonged to Second Major Fyodor Bukhvalov. According to the 1799 plan, the estate was located on the site of the modern complex, with buildings grouped at the corner of the street laid out along the former fortifications of Malaya Pecherskaya Street and the still-forming Zhukovskaya Street. The estate’s access to the Volga slope was vacant.

The red line of the future Upper Volga Embankment was determined in the 1830s, resulting from a large-scale construction program of “imperially commanded works.” The first visit of Emperor Nicholas I to Nizhny Novgorod in October 1834 launched the project. The embankment project, executed by provincial architect Efimov and engineer Gotman, was approved by imperial decree in 1835. Supervision of the works was carried out by engineer Podnozov. By autumn 1839, the embankment surface was leveled and paved with cobblestones.

Stone construction on the embankment began in the 1840s and proceeded slowly due to the unprofitability of erecting stone buildings on the city’s outskirts. By mid-century, the buildings of the Martynov Hospital and the Mariinsky Institute for Noble Maidens, as well as several private residences, including the house of Nizhny Novgorod merchant of the third guild Serapion Vezlomtsev, were built. Vezlomtsev’s house occupied part of the future Rukavishnikov estate ensemble. The main house of Vezlomtsev’s estate was a model project in the style of late Classicism. In 1868, the estate was purchased from the merchant by first guild merchant and manufactory advisor Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov. According to the 1871 description book, the two-story stone house with outbuildings was valued at 4,000 rubles.

In 1874, Rukavishnikov died, and the inheritance transfer process stretched until the end of 1875. In 1886, the estate owner was Sergey Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov; in the 1890s, Ivan, Sergey, Mitrofan, Nikolay, and Evgenia Ivanovna Rukavishnikov. In June 1891, Sergey Rukavishnikov again became the sole owner.

Project drawings of the currently existing building have not been found in archives. Researchers know of other projects for remodeling the old Vezlomtsev mansion. A project dated May 1875 provided for adding another floor at the mezzanine level. Supervision was undertaken by the well-known Nizhny Novgorod engineer-architect Kilevein. A second project, signed by Kilevein and Rukavishnikov, envisaged a more serious reconstruction of the building in the eclectic style. This project was not realized. The increased wealth of the Rukavishnikov family demanded the construction of a new building that could represent the family’s wealth. In Ivan Sergeevich Rukavishnikov’s book “The Cursed Family,” there is a quote about the future house expressing the dreams of a wealthy heir: “The future house is large and beautiful. A thousand masons will build it. Plans and drawings from Moscow and St. Petersburg. And it will be a palace-house. And the palace will have a hundred rooms. And a two-story hall. And a staircase — marble, unlike any other. And that palace will cost exactly a million... Let the whole city gasp. Let people come from all over the Volga to admire it. Where will that palace stand? Not on a narrow street, where houses stand on both sides. But on the upper embankment...”

The eclectic style was deliberately chosen for the future building, its success explained by the rapid development of capitalism and the aesthetic tastes of large industrialists and merchants of the post-reform period. The merchant class sought to “emphatically emphasize the dominance of money, their will, and influence with loud massiveness.” The demand for eclecticism was explained by the bourgeoisie’s desire to assert themselves in Russian society, which gave rise to a peculiar cult of luxury. All this also applied to the Rukavishnikovs — originally from the small district town of Balakhna, who moved to Nizhny Novgorod in the 1810s with the relocation of the Makaryev Fair to the city.

Literary sources indicate Moscow architect Petr Samoilovich Boytsov as the author of the estate project, while the facade decoration is attributed to Mikhail Osipovich Mikeshin — the author of monuments such as the Millennium of Russia in Veliky Novgorod, Catherine II in St. Petersburg, Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv, and others. Boytsov’s authorship is confirmed by archival data related to his unsuccessful attempt in 1890 to obtain the title of academician from the Imperial Academy of Arts. The list of completed works included the Rukavishnikov house in Nizhny Novgorod. Mikeshin’s authorship is questionable. The reason why Rukavishnikov chose Boytsov and Mikeshin is unclear. At that time, Boytsov was not a well-known architect; his fame came in the 1880s-90s. Since he did not have the right to carry out construction works himself, engineer-architect Robert Yakovlevich Kilevein played a major role in the building’s erection. The authorship of the mansion’s interior decoration is not established. The painter Foma Gavrilovich Toporov was the author of the painted plafonds of the main staircase, ballroom, and antechamber.

The start of the works can be approximately dated to 1875. According to A. S. Gasitsky, the remains of the ancient earthen rampart were destroyed then. Local historian N. F. Filatov also dated the start of works to this time. In July 1876, a water supply system was installed in the estate, for which a special one-story building was erected on the territory to house a locomobile — a mechanism designed to pump water. The completion date — 1877 — is indicated above the main entrance to the building. Nevertheless, in 1879, the interior decoration was still not finished. The owner had to use only part of the house, living on the upper floor. Presumably, all works were completed in 1879 or early 1880.

Researchers note that the building was not constructed from scratch but was essentially a reconstruction of the old estate. This conclusion was confirmed by analysis of the floor plans of the two buildings and studies conducted during restoration. In the western part, the palace almost completely preserves the layout structure of the old house. According to researchers, this was due both to economic considerations and the will of the “deceased father or the mother alive at that time.” S. M. Rukavishnikov lived on interest income during the construction period, showing no interest in economic activities and paying attention only to horse breeding.

Rukavishnikov remained the owner of the estate until his death in 1914. From the pre-revolutionary period, only the installation of a new water supply system in the building in 1906 is known. The appearance of the estate at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries was repeatedly captured by the famous Nizhny Novgorod photographer Dmitriev, whose photographs were used to publish scenic postcards.

During the Soviet period, the complex was expropriated. In the main building, from March to June 1918, the provincial museum was housed. In 1919, the sons of the former owner — Ivan and Mitrofan Rukavishnikov, who participated in organizing the museum, were evicted from the estate. In the 1920s, repair works were carried out in the interior rooms. In 1927, reconstruction was done to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution.

In 1935, a new complex of repair and restoration works was carried out, continuing into the post-war period. In the 1980s, annual works were conducted to restore sculptural and architectural elements of the facades and interior decoration. The gates leading to the territory were recreated according to the old pattern. By decision No. 559 of the Gorky Regional Executive Committee dated November 3, 1983, the complex was taken under protection as an architectural monument of regional (currently regional) significance.

At the turn of the 20th–21st centuries, funding for restoration works ceased, and the monument fell into an emergency condition. From 1997 to 2010, a large-scale restoration was carried out.

The main house, built in the spirit of an Italian palazzo with stylized forms and Baroque details, occupies the eastern corner of the estate. Richly decorated with stucco and sculptural images, the three-story mansion faces the Upper Volga Embankment with its main facade and serves as an accent in its development. The exterior features a variety of architectural elements: rusticated pilasters and a segmental semi-pediment at the entrance, two slightly articulated risalits, a second-floor balcony, and a high attic above the broken pediment, profiled inter-floor belts, and profiled window casings. The parapet with a small projection is decorated with vases; the window niches have stucco compositions. The stucco is executed using floral motifs: leafy garlands descend from the casings in long festoons. The keystones of the first-floor windows are shaped like acanthus leaves or mascarons (lion heads). The slab of the main balcony is supported by brackets resting on the backs of sculpted atlantes. In the central part, there is a frieze belt resting on herms with female torsos. The belt on the risalits and side facades is supported by caryatids. The main pediment and the pediment with volutes above the entrance are marked by sculptures of seated women in Greek garments. On either side of the doorway are herms of old men. Sculptures of cherubs in various variations decorate the third floor and the crowning part of the gates with a cartouche and the owner’s monogram.

The two-story plastered brick wing, built in the spirit of academic eclecticism with elements of Classicism and Baroque, is located in the central part of the estate. On the second-floor level, it is connected to the main house by a passage. The main facade has rich decoration in the form of window sills and inter-floor belts, a crowning cornice, niches with stucco cartouches, and infill panels in the form of chains of vertically elongated ovals. The facade is topped by a Baroque attic with a segmental arch finish and a round skylight window with stucco decoration. At the rounded corners of the building, rectangular panels with stucco in the form of vertical chains of leaves are arranged. All windows have profiled casings and are decorated with sandriks in the form of broken triangular pediments with keystones; at the first-floor level, the tympana of the pediments are supplemented with cartouches with stucco garlands, and at the second-floor level — compositions of round cartouches.

The service building, marking the southeast corner of the estate, is connected to the wing. The architectural solution is executed in the same spirit as the wing and has similar decoration. The facade facing Piskunova Street has rich stucco decor: profiled cornices, belts of “sukhari” and stucco rosettes, panels decorated with stucco in the form of vertical chains of leaves, sandriks with segmental arches with shoulders and keystones in the form of round cartouches and acanthus in the panels, and more. Above the outer three axes, there is a Baroque attic with a segmental arch finish and a round skylight window with stucco framing.

The elongated rectangular building was topped with a second floor during the Soviet period. In the 2000s, decoration was restored using modern materials: a belt of small round rosettes and a vertical chain of leaves.

The estate plot is enclosed by a highly artistic brick fence with gates and a wicket. The gates were recreated during restoration, including the filling of highly artistic castings restored from photographs.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usadba_S._M._Rukavishnikova