House No. 6 on Apraksin Lane is part of the territory that in the 1730s was granted by Empress Anna Ioannovna to her chamberlain Fyodor Andreyevich Apraksin. At the end of the 18th century, due to a fire at the Sea Market, the owners of this territory decided to sell it for merchant shops. At the same time, the part along the lane was divided into separate plots and sold to different individuals.

The eastern side of Apraksin Lane was allocated for development by imperial decree dated July 15, 1802. The address book of Petersburg in the 1820s names the owner of the plot of house No. 6 as the petty bourgeois Alexey Vasilyevich Trifonov (or Trifonov). He acquired it from the heirs of merchant Petr Shchekalov (or Chekalov). The first stone building constructed here (before 1822) was two stories, with the first floor equipped for trade with rusticated masonry (it was an open arcade). The smooth wall of the second floor was pierced by simple windows. Apparently, it was built according to the project of architect E. Dimmert, who built a very similar house next in line towards Sadovaya Street.

Initially, the width of Trifonov’s plot on the lane side was five meters wider than the width on the side of the Grafsky Drive of Apraksin’s yard. In the 1840s, the owner of the neighboring house No. 8 bought these “extra” meters, thus aligning the sides of the plots. Around the same time, Trifonov’s house was extended by adding a third floor.

All the buildings on Apraksin Lane, as well as many nearby blocks, burned down during the fire on May 28, 1862. It is obvious that house No. 6 was also damaged. By that time, it belonged to the wife of collegiate secretary Tatyana Konstantinovna Putilina. After the fire, she decided not only to restore the building but also to add a courtyard wing. The corresponding project was carried out by architect Sheleykhovsky and approved by architect Ferri de Pinye, who supervised the restoration of all buildings on Apraksin Lane. The project was retroactively approved by the General Presence of the Board of the First District of the Main Directorate of Communications and Public Buildings on October 29, 1862, when construction was already in full swing. The courtyard wing turned out to be one story higher than the construction documentation provided. On the side of Grafsky Drive, to comply with fire safety measures, almost all buildings along Apraksin Lane, including house No. 6, had blind firewall walls.

Putilina most likely rented out her house for residential and commercial shops. In 1863, a “retiring place” (architect Ferri de Pinye) was arranged in the courtyard, indicating a high likelihood of a tavern being located here.

Several years later, house No. 6 passed to merchant Roman Evdokimovich Voronin. For him, the commercial premises on the first floor were expanded by replacing internal brick walls with cast-iron columns with steel beams spanning them. It was after this merchant’s surname that the passage in Apraksin Yard between houses No. 4 and 6 on the lane was named Voronikhinsky in the 1880s.

The next owner of the plot was hereditary honorary citizen Vasily Alexandrovich Khrushchev. Soon he was replaced again by Voronin, but this time by second guild merchant Pyotr Evdokimovich Voronin. He lived in house No. 32 on Gorokhovaya Street and traded in haberdashery goods in Apraksin Yard. He owned shops No. 58-59 on Grafsky Drive.

Decisive changes in the fate of house No. 6 occurred with its next owner, first guild merchant Mikhail Alexandrovich Alexandrov. He had his shops in the Small Gostiny Dvor and lived in house No. 37 on Mokhovaya Street. Merchant Alexandrov decided to erect a new building here and invited the young architect Fyodor Ivanovich Lidval. Cooperation with this architect may have been due to Alexandrov’s acquaintance with Lidval’s parents.

At the client’s request, the old building was demolished, and it was decided to erect the new structure on its foundation. On April 28, 1902, Lidval signed the finished project. It was approved by the City Administration on May 3. The City Administration’s resolution specifically noted conditions under which the building’s height could not exceed the width of Apraksin Lane, the courtyard area could not be less than 30 square sazhen (a fire safety requirement due to the need for turning horse-drawn fire engines), and the steps of the first and basement floors could not extend beyond the building line by more than 8 vershoks (35.5 centimeters). The last requirement arose because the project provided for entrances to the commercial premises on the first and basement floors via steps starting from the sidewalk. To avoid obstructing pedestrians, their size had to be limited. The resolution was signed by architect A. Shiltsov.

The first and second floors of Alexandrov’s house were intended to have seven shops. The third floor was allocated for large halls, presumably for auctions or meetings. This floor was essentially the first floor of the hotel, so one of its halls was supposed to house a restaurant. The fourth and fifth floors contained hotel rooms. The originally designed sixth floor by Lidval was not approved by the City Administration. Because of this, the architect had to submit another project for approval on August 23, which made the sixth floor an attic, not intended for living. The basement played a significant role in the project, extending even under the courtyard territory. The basement floor and ceiling were made of reinforced concrete.

The facade of Alexandrov’s house bears typical Art Nouveau features. In Lidval’s project, the pylons rising above the cornice did not intersect with the downspouts. However, this had to be done to solve problems with water drainage from the roof. The corner pylon was supposed to be topped with a hemispherical lantern under a shallow dome. This was implemented, but by 1949 only parts of the frame remained of the lantern. Between the first and second floors, suspended lanterns on brackets and guy wires were supposed to be installed. By 1949, they were no longer on the building’s facade, and their fate is unknown. By that time, flag holders existed in their place.

The hotel in house No. 6 on Apraksin Lane began operating in 1904. Historian Kirikov called it the “Merchant Hotel of M. A. Alexandrov.” However, local historian Mikishatev in the book “Walks in the Central District. From Palace Square to the Fontanka” clarifies that since 1904 the hotel owner was Vasily Vasilyevich Pudkov. The aforementioned Voronin continued to rent shops No. 71-76 on the back side of the plot until 1905. Possibly, he moved his trade to Alexandrov’s shops.

The commercial shops on the side of Grafsky Drive later became four stories. Exactly when this happened is unknown. Mikishatev suggests they were extended during the Soviet era, when Apraksin Market transformed from a trading center into an industrial zone.

From 1907, the hotel in Alexandrov’s house was owned by Nikolay Alekseyevich Kurmenev, whose family remained the owner until 1917. Since 1915, the owners of both the house and the hotel were the heirs of Alexandrov and Kurmenev.

It is obvious that during the Civil War years, the hotel and commercial premises must have been empty. At the end of the 1920s, the building was adapted for communal apartments on the upper floors and a preschool institution on the lower floors. Documentation for the re-planning of the premises was drawn up on June 22, 1930. Not earlier than this time, a third staircase was added to the building in the courtyard for the needs of the children’s institution.

Modern alterations have noticeably distorted Lidval’s original design for Alexandrov’s house facade. The first four floors here had a clear frame structure. The wall panels between the pylons were recessed under a powerful steel beam bearing the brick walls of the upper floors. Later, the highlighting of steel beams on the facade was lost. Instead of the wide display windows of the first and second floors, the building received standard windows. The doors leading to the shops on the first and basement floors were bricked up. Even the facade’s color changed. Previously, the inter-window panels of the fourth and fifth floors were darker than the rest, thus appearing as frame infill. Now the wall color is uniform. Moreover, the current owners added another floor on top of the building.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house1058.html

https://walkspb.ru/istoriya-peterburga/zd/aleksandrova-m-a-dom