The Maksimov dacha in the city of Lomonosov (Oranienbaum) at 16 Krasnoflotskoye Highway is a monument of federal architectural significance. The researcher of the architectural heritage of the Peterhof road and Oranienbaum, Gorbatenko, wrote in his monograph: “The facades and even (a rare case) the interiors of the main building have largely preserved their historical architecture.” This house is a kind of “last of the Mohicans” of the large-scale dacha heritage from the turn of the 19th-20th centuries along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Meanwhile, until now, it was not even known who Maksimov was who built this dacha. In the 1992 decree on taking it under protection, signed by Boris Yeltsin, it is listed as the dacha of “Admiral Maksimov.” The same Gorbatenko suggested that it might refer to Prokopy Maksimov, the founder of a shipping company in Kronstadt. However, in reality, the owner of the dacha was the St. Petersburg merchant of the 1st guild, Ivan Maksimovich Maksimov.

The dacha was built on the territory of the “Andreyevskoye” estate, named after the manager of Oranienbaum, to whom Alexander I gifted it in 1820 in gratitude for the excellent condition of the residence, especially beloved by the emperor in the last years of his reign.

The future owner of the dacha, Ivan Maksimovich Maksimov, was born in 1840. He began his career with a money-changing shop located in the Small Gostiny Dvor, on Bankovskaya Line, now Lomonosov Street, building 2.

At 22, Ivan became a merchant of the 2nd guild, and at 40, of the 1st guild. In 1900, the 60-year-old Maksimov transformed the money-changing shop into a banking office that provided credit to stock exchange players and rose to the rank of Actual State Councillor.

Ivan Maksimov’s first wife died in 1881. Soon after, he married Maria Georgievna Klapovskaya, a representative of a well-known Moscow clan of merchant homeowners. After the second marriage, Maksimov’s business priorities shifted — he began investing in real estate.

For his family’s summer rest, Maksimov built a luxurious dacha in Oranienbaum, which he called “Maryino” — after his second wife, Maria Georgievna. She inherited the property and business after the death of her 66-year-old husband in 1906. The hereditary honorary citizen Ivan Maksimovich Maksimov was buried in the cemetery at the Resurrection Novodevichy Monastery.

Only the eldest son from the first marriage, Vladimir, followed his father’s merchant path. He chaired various financial institutions in the city of St. Petersburg. By 1917, Vladimir Ivanovich held the position of director of the St. Petersburg Private Pawnshop, whose office at the corner of Vladimirsky and Zagorodny Prospects is now recognized as an architectural monument.

The last owner of Maksimov’s dacha “Maryino” — the merchant’s widow Maria Georgievna Maksimova-Klapovskaya — died in 1929 in Leningrad at 29 Ryleeva Street. From 1949, their country house housed the Lomonosov Children’s Home (a psycho-neurological boarding school), which was closed only in 2009.

The Maksimov dacha became popular after mystical photographs appeared on social networks showing sculptures of children dressed in clothes. They have now been removed somewhere. Along the narrow overgrown road to the dacha coming from the bay side, a statue of a mother with a child still stands. The years have not spared it, and now it looks as if a zombie apocalypse happened here.

The “Maksimov Dacha” estate is a cultural heritage site of federal significance and is owned by the Leningrad Region. According to data from KGIOP, the Leningrad Regional Committee for State Property Management was supposed to restore the main house of the estate by April 5, 2022. However, the deadline passed, and the building was not restored.

The Maksimov dacha, where historical interiors still remained, is under unfriendly security with dogs for photographers, which, however, did not save it from a large fire. Thirty-six people and nine units of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire, which covered an area of 600 square meters. The court ordered the owner to restore the burned-down pre-revolutionary Maksimov dacha in Lomonosov.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house18823.html

https://vk.com/wall-50104557_1428