Information about the building

The mansion on Pyatnitskaya Street, also known as the 'House with Lions', was built in 1897 at the request of Wilhelmina Ivanovna Rekk, the wife of the well-known entrepreneur Yakov Andreevich Rekk. He headed the Nikolsky Rows Partnership and founded the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company, one of the largest construction companies in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Construction of the mansion began under the previous owner of the estate, I.G. Markova, but soon after the work started, the estate was sold to the Rekk family, and Wilhelmina Rekk became the official owner. At the request of the new owners, the mansion's design was significantly altered. The author of the new project was the same architect as originally, Sergey Vladimirovich Sherwood, the son of the famous architect V.O. Sherwood, the creator of the Historical Museum and the monument to the grenadiers of Plevna.

The building, completed in 1897, is executed in an eclectic style with elements of classical architecture. It is richly decorated with stucco and consists of various volumes: the main facade faces the street and is adorned with a monumental portico with powerful Corinthian columns, a pediment with elegant stucco, and a grand window on the first floor, decorated with two caryatid sculptures. The left volume of the building features an octagonal tower with rusticated half-columns and round windows, topped with a dome of original shape. The appearance of the house is complemented by lion sculptures placed on either side of the grand portico. The interior of the mansion was also richly decorated, and several exquisite grand halls have survived to this day: Moorish, classical, fireplace, and stained glass.

After the construction was completed, the mansion was sold to Pyotr Vasilyevich Stakheev, a hereditary honorary citizen, and then passed to Nikolai Alexeyevich Sukhanov, a personal honorary citizen. The last owners of the house were the sons of N.A. Sukhanov, who inherited it after their father's death.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the mansion was nationalized, and the Zamoskvoretsky District Committee of the VKP(b) was located here. In 1918, V.I. Lenin visited the house to participate in a meeting of party cells from the factories of the Zamoskvoretsky district, as evidenced by a granite plaque installed later. This building also housed the famous revolutionary R.S. Zemlyachka, who participated in the execution of captured White officers in 1920 and in the party purges of the 1920s-1930s.

Renovation and Restoration

In 2017, the restoration of the building's facades and the historical interiors of the grand halls was completed. Work was carried out on the gilding and silvering of the stucco decor, as well as the restoration of the painting in the dome of the rotunda and in the cartouches of the Fireplace Hall.

That same year, the Rekk House became a laureate of the Moscow Government's 'Moscow Restoration' competition in the categories of 'Best Restoration/Adaptation Project' and 'Scientific-Methodological Guidance/Research Work'.