The first house of the Nobel family in Saint Petersburg

A wooden house in the classicism style, decorated with a portico – a rarity that has survived into the 20th century from the times when the Petersburg side was the outskirts of the city.

The exact date of construction is unknown. There are recorded drawings from 1871: a general plan, facade, plans of the first floor and the mezzanine (located at the back, on the courtyard side).

The appearance of the house at the beginning of the 20th century is captured in a 1913 photograph by Radetsky. Over the time from 1871 to 1913, the house underwent alterations.

The last owners of this house from 1898 to 1917 were three sisters, born Pisareva: Anna Petrovna Grigorovich, Tamara Petrovna Moreva, and Zoya Petrovna Pisareva.

The house is visible on a 1903 postcard. (The inscription on the postcard is incorrect. The fact that the photograph shows the Petersburg (now Petrograd) Embankment is evidenced at least by the surviving buildings – the Schreder mansion (Petrograd Embankment, 32), and behind it the brick buildings of the "James Beck" manufactory (Petrograd Embankment, 34).) The Pisarev house is near the left edge of the photo. Notably, the tall mezzanine, which would appear by 1913, is not yet visible on it.

It is believed that Emmanuel Nobel lived in this house at Petrograd Embankment, 20, next to the factory he founded, together with his sons – including the later famous Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prize.

In 1937, in connection with preparations for the construction of a new building on this site, the relocation of the wooden house to another place, in Novaya Derevnya, was planned. On the 1939 measured drawing, the facade looks the same as in 1913. The relocation was prevented by the war. In 1942, the house was dismantled for firewood.

The opinion that the house at Petrograd Embankment, 24 is Nobel’s house is mistaken. Research conducted by GIOP staff before the war proved that the house rented by Alfred Nobel’s father was located next to his factory.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house4162.html

https://www.citywalls.ru/house33401.html