The history of the house at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street in Saint Petersburg
begins at the end of the first third of the 18th century, when after the fires of the 1730s
the historic part of the city was being formed and Bolshaya and Malaya Morskaya
streets were laid out. The plot of land came under the jurisdiction of the Salt Office.
On the right part of the plot, a low one-story building was erected with a high basement,
a seven-window first floor, and a traditional triangular pediment in the central
part of the facade. The building belonged to a certain Yakov Maslov, an advisor to the Salt
Commission. However, the advisor himself did not live here but rented out the premises
for auctions. Maslov’s career ended unexpectedly. In 1775,
Yakov Andreyevich chose to withdraw from worldly life and took monastic vows
at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The house was inherited by his son Mikhail,
who worked in the same field as his father and at that time held the position of director
of the Salt Administration. Considering the maintenance of the house economically unprofitable,
the building was sold just four years later to the writer Yefim Roznotovsky,
who, being free from public duties, worked here on translations and publications of works by Voltaire and Montesquieu.

From that moment, the owners of the building changed every 5-10 years.
However, some owned the plot for a very short time. Nevertheless,
all of them were quite respected people or at least belonged to well-known families.
Among them were Actual State Councillor and Treasurer of the Chapter of Russian Orders Pyotr Obreskov,
Count Mikhail Valitsky, and finally Tatiana Yusupova — niece of Prince Grigory Potemkin,
who became the owner of the building after her divorce from Nikolai Yusupov.
Also, the house on Bolshaya Morskaya was owned by chamberlain Alexey Khitrovo,
married to Maria Musina-Pushkina, and some others. Among the constructive and architectural innovations was the reconstruction of house 47,
and by 1810 it was already a full-fledged two-story mansion,
with the facade decorated with a classical four-column portico.

The longest owner of the building was probably the grandson
of Field Marshal Suvorov, Count Rymniksky, Prince of Italy, General-Adjutant
Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov. Having acquired the building in July 1847,
he mortgaged it the following month at the State Loan Bank for 26 years.
Probably this fact was the reason for the relative “stability.” But it is unlikely that the reason for this step was a need for money,
since in 1848 Alexander Arkadyevich was governor of Livonia, Estonia, and Courland,
and from 1861 to 1866 — military governor of Petersburg. Besides public activity,
Suvorov collected a book collection, which after his death was transferred to the Public Library.
1873 was a turning point in the history of house 47. Suvorov sold it to collegiate registrar Mikhail Rogov,
who immediately decided to reconstruct it. The architect was Lev Yaf,
who developed the project in the interests of the new owner.
As a result, the house lost its classical appearance: the pediment disappeared and the facade decoration changed significantly.
An additional section was added to the left side of the building, two semicircular windows placed side by side,
under which a passage to the yard was arranged, and slightly to the right of the arch a front door was made.

Despite significant investments, in 1886 Rogov sold the house at auction.
The auction was won by the cousin of the already mentioned Suvorov, Count Platon Zubov.
He won but owned the building for less than a year.
In 1887, the plot with the house was purchased by Nadezhda Polovtseva,
the adopted daughter of banker Baron Ludwig Stieglitz and wife of Senator Alexander Polovtsev.
However, the mansion was bought for their son Alexander,
who lived here for some time with his wife.
Considering the richness of the interiors on the first and second floors with the use of carved and inlaid wood,
it is believed that they were created at this time.
The wooden furnishings of house 47 on Bolshaya Morskaya have been preserved to this day.

All this shuffle with owners was a prelude to the settlement of the most important family in its history.
In 1897, the building was acquired by wealthy merchant and successful industrialist Ivan Rukavishnikov in the name of his daughter Elena
on the eve of her marriage to the son of the Minister of Justice Dmitry Nabokov,
Vladimir Dmitrievich (1869–1922). The house became part of her dowry before the wedding,
as in 1897 she married Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov — a lawyer, one of the founders of the Cadet Party and a member of the 1st State Duma.
From 1898, the Nabokov family lived permanently in this house.
In the first year after the purchase, the front wing was repaired.
And it was in house 47 on Bolshaya Morskaya Street at the end of the 19th century, on April 10, 1899,
that the future great writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born.

In 1901–1902, the house underwent a major renovation.
The reconstruction project and supervision were carried out by the experienced architect Mikhail Geysler and engineer Boris Guslisty.
Thanks to their efforts, the front and right courtyard wings became three stories tall.
Small courtyard annexes were demolished, and a five-story wing-type annex was built in the yard for renting apartments.
Among the old conveniences at the rear boundary of the plot, the existing icehouse, shed, and stable were preserved,
but under the wing, cellars were arranged for storing firewood and foundations for the stairwell cage.
Under part of the yard (near the stable) and under the shed, a special passage was built,
through which firewood from the cellar was supplied to a hoisting machine located by the icehouse wall,
which delivered firewood to all floors.
The shaft ran from the cellar to the attic, where a winch mounted on steel beams and operated manually was located.

Besides everything else, the facade decoration changed.
Such serious work was carried out very carefully.
First, new outer walls and roof were erected, and only then was the old roof dismantled and new internal floors built.
The labor intensity paid off: first, valuable unique interiors were preserved,
and second, in autumn, work could be carried out under the roof, protecting people from weather hazards and illuminating the building with arc lamps.

The lower floor was faced with red Radom sandstone,
which consists of quartz grains colored red and small scales of pink sericite.
The upper floors were finished with gray sandstone.
The window casings of the second floor were carved from red sandstone and clearly stood out against the gray wall background.
However, the owners rejected excessive decoration with false architectural forms not caused by structural necessity.
As a result, instead of ornamentation with sandriks, columns, and similar elements,
the facade was decorated with motifs from the plant kingdom.
These include a luxurious mosaic frieze specially made and embedded in the facade wall faced with hewn stone,
featuring stylized tulips and lilies entwined on a turquoise field with a golden border.
In the middle part of the facade, above the frieze, nine stone-carved rosehip flowers are placed in recesses,
and instead of a cornice, the facade is accented by the pure light of the roof,
laid on projecting rafter feet resting on iron-forged brackets arranged in pairs.
Between these brackets, the facade is decorated with sandstone-carved palm branches.
The unusual but quite laconic exterior of the building was complemented by metal details.

The front staircase was decorated with stained glass of Riga manufacture.
The mansion’s interiors are designed in the styles of Baroque, Italian and French Renaissance, and Art Nouveau.
The walls were faced with artificial marble of green, yellow, and red colors in various shades,
and the windows were adorned with painted glass in lead cames.
It should be noted that during the reconstruction, much of the wooden decoration,
made during the previous renovation of the building in the late 1880s, was preserved.
At that time, children’s rooms were equipped on the third floor,
where Vladimir Nabokov spent his childhood.
In general, each room was uniquely decorated and had its own purpose.
The dining room on the first floor was finished with walnut wood in the Louis XV style.
The adjacent green living room was covered with silk, and its decoration was a stove with magnificent tiles.
The room allocated for the library was decorated with light carved oak in the Henry II style and had a large open fireplace.
Likewise, the rooms on the second and third floors looked unique, beautiful, and rich.
In one of the corner rooms, a bathroom with a cornice made of polished red wood was arranged.
Despite this, a separate room on the third floor had its own water supply,
intended for complete washing of walls, ceiling, and floor directly from a hose.
Why? This isolated room was planned to accommodate people in case of illness.
The room had no decorations, all protrusions and corners were rounded, and the floor was made of magnolite.
What illnesses were meant, history does not say.

An important detail of the building’s decoration was the stained glass windows.
Above the entrance is a stained glass window with a traditional pattern of colored diamonds typical of Petersburg Art Nouveau.
Interestingly, the diamond motif of colored glass appears in many of Nabokov’s texts up to his late novel.
Overall, house 47 is mentioned extensively in the novel "Other Shores."

In 1904, a deed of gift was executed: Elena Ivanovna gifted house 47 on Bolshaya Morskaya
to her husband. It might seem that changing the order of terms does not change the sum.
However, from this moment, the Nabokov house became not only the family residence.

Being one of the leaders of the Cadet Party, a member of the 1st State Duma,
and secretary of the Provisional Government in 1917, the writer’s father began to provide the house’s premises for political meetings.
It was here, from November 6 to 9, that delegates of the First Congress of Zemstvo Activists of Russia
expressed support for constitutional reform, democratic rights and freedoms,
and equality of all citizens regardless of class and religious affiliation.
Moreover, the house was equipped with the latest science and technology.
This was one of the first houses in Petersburg to have a telephone, electric bells for servants,
and even a hydraulic elevator, whose cabin was an open platform fenced with elegant railings.
Vladimir Nabokov Sr. was the first in the capital to buy a Rolls-Royce and was very proud of it,
because the second such car was in the garage of the emperor himself.

The best representatives of the capital’s aristocracy and intelligentsia frequented the house on Bolshaya Morskaya.
But politics had not yet greatly disturbed the measured private life.
In 1916, the young writer Nabokov living here published his first book of poems.
Everything changed with the October Revolution of 1917.
The once comfortably bourgeois world finally shook.
On November 15, 1917, the Nabokov family left Petersburg.
In 1918, the Nabokov house was nationalized for non-payment of city fees amounting to 4,467 rubles.
The sum was both large and not so large at the same time, but it was enough.
As a result, the house was occupied by the military commissariat of the Admiralteysky district.
A year later, the Nabokov family left Russia never to return.
According to Vladimir Nabokov’s memoirs, the mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya was his “only home in the world.”
And it is true: even many years later, when his name was famous worldwide,
he never bought his own house but preferred to live in hotels and rented houses.

From 1922 to 1935, the building housed communications workers:
the Great Northern Telegraph Society operated here, and even employees of the Danish Telegraph Company were quartered.
In the post-war decade, from 1948 to 1959, the building housed the Leningrad branch of the Academy of Architecture.
It was then that significant changes occurred in the appearance of the house’s interiors:
many elements were dismantled, and some were lost.
Until the late 1980s, departments and administrations of the Leningrad City Executive Committee worked in house 47.
Since the early 1990s, the first floor was given to the Committee for Organizing Book Fairs,
and a year later the second and third floors were occupied by the editorial office of the newspaper "Nevskoe Vremya."

By that time, Vladimir Nabokov’s name was already well known not only among samizdat readers.
On the book stalls of both capitals, editions and reprints of "Lolita" by the famous “pornographer and pervert” were abundant.
Unfortunately, for many narrow-minded laypeople, Vladimir Nabokov remained “an old libertine” who wrote a novel about a seductive nymphet,
yet there were also the philosophical "The Gift" and the laconic "The Defense," autobiographical "Other Shores" and nostalgic "Mary,"
the allusive "Invitation to a Beheading" and literary-critical "Conversations with Pushkin." And that’s not all!

As early as August 1997, there was nothing on house 47, not even a modest plaque on the facade
telling passersby that the great writer was born and lived here.
Everything changed a year later.
In April 1998, the museum-apartment of Vladimir Nabokov was opened on the first, “family,” floor of the house.
The initiators of the museum creation hurried to the writer’s centenary.
The museum opened when there was almost not a single item left in the house from the Nabokov family’s time.
However, gradually the museum managed to collect a significant memorial collection and a large scientific library open to visitors.
Since 2008, the museum-apartment has been named the “Nabokov Museum of the Faculty of Philology and Arts of Saint Petersburg State University,”
receiving patronage from one of Russia’s leading universities.

Today, visitors to the museum can learn the history of this building and the Nabokov family,
see a collection of butterflies collected by the writer himself.
Yes, Vladimir Nabokov was not only a world-famous writer but also a qualified entomologist.
By the way, the butterfly collection was transferred from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.
Exhibits include a pencil, glasses, a Scrabble game, a jacket, boots, a diary calendar with notes,
a butterfly net, a set of colored pencils with which he sketched patterns from wings,
and the famous pince-nez, which Nabokov’s son Dmitry Vladimirovich donated to the museum.
It is in these pince-nez that Nabokov is depicted in many surviving photographs.

Of course, Nabokov wearing pince-nez was never in these walls.
But here lived little Volodya Nabokov.
Decades later, in the novel "Other Shores," he wrote:
“I was born there in the last (if counted towards the square, against the numbering flow) room on the second floor,
where there was a hiding place with my mother’s valuables.”
Even in such everyday words, one feels the breed and style.

It cannot be said that there are many exhibits in the museum.
Enthusiasts collect them literally bit by bit from around the world.
But the wooden ceilings, wooden panels, fireplaces, partly doors, including those with the family monogram,
stained glass windows, gates, and some other things have been preserved in their original form.
In the display cases are Nabokov’s butterfly collections, the first foreign lifetime editions of his novels,
and, of course, many photographs.
According to Nabokov’s memoirs, the walls in the living room on the first floor were covered with green silk.
The silk has not survived, but in 2002 the walls were painted by the famous American artist Barbara Bloom,
who copied Nabokov’s autographs and drawings from his manuscripts.
The ceiling painted with clouds in the living room was also painted over during Soviet times,
and until the premises were transferred to the museum, the clouds remained only in Nabokov’s text.
A trial cleaning in 2000 showed that they were preserved,
but only in 2008 did the Faculty of Philology and Arts begin planned restoration of the room and ceiling painting.
Almost immediately, details of the ceiling painting were discovered.
It became clear that the living room ceiling was decorated with rich painting,
which, besides clouds, included an image of a swallow and a garland of leaves.
Work is underway not only in the living room, but there is still a long way to go before completion.

Surprisingly, Elena Ivanovna’s boudoir, where little Volodya Nabokov was born, has been well preserved.
It is from the boudoir that the famous bay window, or “lantern,” as Nabokov himself calls it,
looks out onto Bolshaya Morskaya.
In one of the rooms where the historic interior has not been preserved,
a documentary film by Leonid Parfenov "The Nabokov Century" is shown.

Sources:

Natalya Sudets: “Vladimir Nabokov’s Only Home in the World”

https://www.citywalls.ru/house1084.html