Geyer Villas

Czerwona 4-6-8

Vis-à-vis the Richard Geyer villa at Czerwona 3 street, the Geyer family began construction on another house in 1897. This one would be erected in a style completely different from the previous Neo-Renaissance residences. Most likely intended to be the home of Emil Geyer and his family, the villa possesses loose references to Gothic architecture, such as a massive gable closed in on three sides or windows adorned with pointed arches. The rather unusual, asymmetrical and irregular structure was expanded in 1900 to include a southern wing under the supervision of Stefan Przedpełski – an architect working for the Geyer enterprise.

In the interwar period, the residence was inhabited by Emil’s son, Karol Geyer, who, after his favourable marriage to Karol Scheibler’s granddaughter, Maria Buchholtz, became one of the wealthiest residents of Łódź. His good fortune ended with the outbreak of WWII and Geyer was arrested by the Nazis. The property was confiscated and its owners driven out of the city. The villa has since fallen somewhat into disrepair, having been used as labourers’ lodgings in the communist era and later transformed into subsidised housing. The subdivision of its apartments into smaller ones, frequent tenant changes and many years of neglect have all but obliterated the original look of the interior.

To this day, next to the villa, on a rather narrow stretch of land near Czerwona street and the old factory premises, there are two nearly identical buildings. These are some of the best-preserved monuments to the philanthropic initiatives of the Geyer family. Around 1898, the family financed the construction of the first of the two-storey buildings at Czerwona 6 street. Possessing a functional style with Neo-Roman and Neo-Gothic motifs, this building became a school for factory workers’ children, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the city prior to WWI, similar in size to the schools at the Scheibler and Poznański factories. In 1923, at the behest of Bishop Wincenty Tymieniecki, the school was handed over to the Order of Saint Ursula, under whose auspices the building was transformed into a children’s shelter for about one hundred kids. Over the following years, the building managed by the Order would become the residence of Sister Superior Aniela Łozińska, as well as a catechetical centre, a boarding house, and an outreach centre for unemployed residents of Łódź. As the school’s needs grew, a second building at Czerwona 8 street was built in 1902. During the interwar period, it housed Public School no. 69. Currently, the buildings are once again occupied by the Order of Saint Ursula and a school (since 1991, Primary School no. 1 STO).