Profitable Abrahama Street

Our walk starts from the intersection of Abrahama Street with 10 Lutego Street, i.e. in the first woonerf (home zone) in Gdynia. The "Profitable Abrahama Street" Route is primarily an example of a number of well-preserved, modernist apartment houses, from the second half of the 1930s, where both the details of the façades and the luxurious interiors are hard to be missed.

At the start of the route, we are greeted by two modernist corner apartment houses (nos. 5 and 7 10 Lutego Street), the concept of which was developed by the excellent architect from Gdynia, Stanisław Ziołowski, the author of, i.a., the famous "Bankowiec". The first one, built in the luxury trend for Bolesław and Genowefa Orłowski, was designed by the aforementioned architect, together with Zbigniew Kupiec, a graduate of the same university (Lviv University of Technology). Vis-à-vis the Orłowski Apartment House, our attention is attracted to merely two-storey Marian Jaszczynski Apartment House. In this case, the concept evolved dynamically. One of the projects by the architect Jan Goździewski assumed a 5- and 6-storey avant-garde body, with a fully glazed "streamline" corner and an additional strip window running along the last storey. Probably due to the high costs, this project, as well as the next concepts of the architects Stanisław Ziołowski and Narcyz Obrycki were not fully implemented. Before the war, Abrahama Street was supposed to have the role of one of the main communication routes of the city. After the war, the street was demoted to the role of an internal street, with a mainly residential and service function. Today, Abrahama Street is an alternative to the bustling Świętojańska Street, with a competitive offer of cafés and small restaurants. Continuing on the left side of the route, it is worth paying attention to numbers 37 and 41, where two apartment houses were designed in the vein of international style. The "Pantarei" company apartment house (designed by Zbigniew Kupiec and Tadeusz Kossak), as one of the few in Gdynia, has the interior of the staircase finished in marble and black colour. Most of the buildings visible on the route are a demonstration of the craftsmanship of the plasterwork masters of the interwar period. Plaster often imitated stone, and its composition remained a closely guarded secret of the valued construction manufacturers of the time. On the right side of the route, we will meet another luxurious apartment house – one of Izaak Reich and Wolf Birnbaum, designed by Edward Fuhrschmied, a graduate of the Lviv University of Technology. This house has one of the most beautiful staircases, including original terrazzo patterns and a sculptural formed, three-flighted stairway with an impressive "well hole".
On the section of Abrahama Street between Żwirki i Wigury Street and Armii Krajowej Street, we can see two apartment houses with interesting entrance portals. On one of them (the building at 45 Abrahama Street), what draws our attention is a hand-painted Kashubian pattern. At the end of Abrahama Street, an original implementation of Narcyz Obrycki's design awaits us, with accentuated horizontal window slats, decorative window divisions, and colorful "corset" tiles on the floor inside the staircase. The Abrahama Street Route includes also a fragment of Władysława IV Street, with the Danek Family Apartment House and its impressive staircase, or the carefully renovated Henryk Chudziński Apartment House, designed by Jerzy Müller and Stefan Reychman.

Buildings to see on the route

Map of the route

See the routes of the Modernist City Centre

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