Richard Němec’s Tenement House

In 1922, Prague Suburbs was still an independent town (it was not part of Hradec Králové until 1947). Yet, the development and growth of Hradec Králové was evident, and a regulatory plan for Prague Suburbs was drawn up relatively soon (by Oldřich Liska in 1912 and Viktor Lehovec in 1913), which took into account the developing Hradec Králové towards Prague Suburbs as well as modern requirements for health, communication, etc. The development of Prague Suburbs was eventually carried out according to the regulatory plan of architect Oldřich Liska. In 1914, the village already had streets, slowly formed from isolated houses. Dukelská (then Husova) Street and Machova Street formed the artery of the village – they were a continuation of Karlova Street leading to the center and a link to the train station.

 

In December 1922, Richard Němec, a dental technician, received permission to build house No. 477 in Husova (now Dukelská) Street. The construction lasted until November of the following year. On 8 November 1925, Richard Němec was elected mayor of the Dental Technicians’ Association and the general meeting of the Dental Technicians’ Association was held in his new house the same year. Anna Němcová has been the owner of the house since 1931.

 

The building was designed and constructed by the local firm of Václav and František Capoušek, who later built the nearby Church of the Divine Heart of the Lord in Náměstí 28. října Square. Surviving plans from the above-mentioned company from 1922 show the very good condition of the building. It is a three-story house with three apartments (each of about 100m2). Each apartment has three rooms with windows facing the main street and a background (hall, kitchen, bathroom) facing the courtyard. According to the protocol of 1923, there were cellars in the basement and a shop on the ground floor, with a room, a kitchen, and accessories. According to the available information, the layout of the house has not been changed.

 

The rear façade with the round balcony recess still corresponds to the original designs. However, the front façade is different. The first thing that strikes us about the house in Dukelská Street is the decor, which is in the modern period trend of national decorativism, or the arch style, which took hold after WWI in an attempt to revive the crystalline decor of Cubism. Josef Gočár brought this approach to Hradec Králové and used it, albeit in a more moderate form, on the building of the Anglobank in Ulrichovo náměstí Square. There are many houses with decorative façades from the early 1920s in Hradec Králové, for example the neighboring house at 479 Dukelská Street. However, the façade of the house at 477 Dukelská Street was obviously more inspired by the construction of the Prague Legiobanka (1046/24 Na Poříčí Street) by Josef Gočár, built between 1921 and 1923. The final design of the façade does not match the original design of the surviving plans, which is rather in a neo-Renaissance style. In contemporary photographs from 1925, the decor is consistent with the current state and there is no record of a reconstruction or change in design.

 

One of the earliest public references to the house in Dukelská Street is from 6 June 1924, when an advertisement for a button factory appeared in Rozhledy magazine. The cellars of the house were thus apparently given by Richard Němec to Josef Navrátil’s company to serve as factory warehouses. According to Rozhledy magazine of 1931, Richard Němec was refused permission to set up a basement apartment, and in the same year, a certain Mrs. Šimunková was allowed to set up shop windows. In 1968, the ground floor of the house was acquired by a hat shop, which initiated the reconstruction of this space and, in particular, the redesign of the entrance to the shop and the residential part of the house. The changes were designed by Miroslav Hofmann.

 

In 1994, the then owner André Němec appointed JUDr. Ladislav Polák as the administrator of the house. At the time of restitution in Hradec Králové (since 1991), as with many other buildings, the owners were unable to take care of the property, either for financial reasons or because of emigration. The building gradually decayed until 2001 when Ladislav Polák decided to buy the house. Thanks to this, the house, which had been neglected until then, began to be gradually reconstructed in 2003. Although it has not been a listed building, the modern renovations were an attempt to preserve the original appearance of the damaged roofs, chimneys, windows, shop windows, and façade. Therefore, the distinctive arched design is still evident. Today, the building serves its original purpose: it is a tenement house with a shop.

 

Kristýna Krejčová