Muir and Maryliz (Mostorg, TSUM). st. Petrovka
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the company was managed by a third co-owner, Walter Philip. In the 1880s, the company moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where it rented a store at Kuznetsky Most, 19, which had just been rebuilt by the architect Kossov from the old estate of Prince Gagarin, and five years later opened wholesale store ladies' hats and haberdashery at the corner of Kuznetsky Most and Petrovka (in the "Khomyakov House").
Soon the trading house bought a building for a large store on Theater Square, on the site of today's Central Department Store. It was decided to create here a large department store, like the London "Whiteley" or the Parisian "Bon Marche". There was no better place to be found: a street of expensive shops, Kuznetsky Most, passed nearby. There were chic passages.
A few years later, Muir and Maryliz switched to retail, increased the assortment and became the first department store in Russia.
Purchases worth more than 75, and then 25 rubles were sent to the customer anywhere in Russia, and the store assumed the costs of delivery within the European part. Four times a year, at the beginning of each season, catalogs of goods were published, which were sent free of charge to everyone in the same way as fabric samples.
The goods here were of excellent quality, the sellers were impeccably polite: when the buyer was dissatisfied, the goods were immediately replaced with a new one. For children, going to Muir and Merilizes was a real treat, because there were amazing toys waiting for them. Labels with names were attached to each. “Horses made of wood with wool”, “A bear in a clockwork fur tumbling”, “A clockwork tin seal, walks in a zigzag”.
When hiring department heads, store owners did not rely on their ability to bargain, so they introduced fixed prices. This aroused the indignation of those old ladies who were proud of their ability to buy goods at minimum prices. In addition to fixed prices, the department store's innovations were: an obligation to take back or exchange goods, periodic sales, daily delivery of goods to all parts of the city, and price reduction due to increased sales.
Until 1891, on the top floor of the department store, there was still wholesale. By the end of the century, the total number of departments in the store of Muir and Marylis reached 44, and the number of employees approached a thousand. It was the first large department store in Russia.
In February 1892, there was a strong fire in the store, the consequences of which, however, were quickly eliminated. “The premises were fully equipped with automatic fire extinguishers,” wrote store owner Andrew Muir, “and the damage to the goods seems to have resulted from them and from the water supplied by fire engines, rather than from fire.” The losses were covered by insurance, but two firefighters died in the blaze. This misfortune further increased the despondency of the owners caused by the decline of trade.
On the evening of November 24, 1900, a second fire broke out in the shop. Moscow was flooded with bright red light for many miles around, and crowds of people flocked from the suburbs to watch such an event ...
The store building burned down and it was decided to build a new building on the site of the burnt one. The project of a new seven-story building was developed by the famous architect Roman Ivanovich Klein in the English Gothic style with modern elements. For the first time in Russia, reinforced concrete was used during construction. Metal structures and the steel frame of the building, designed by the famous engineer V. G. Shukhov, were used. Although the store was not a skyscraper, the seven-story building was considered tall at the time. The new method of construction made it possible to significantly increase retail space due to thinner walls.
September 15 (02), 1907. "Russian word".
"SHAREHOLDERS AND TRADE DEPARTMENT
Transformation of the trading house "Muir and Maryliz". We are informed that the Minister of Trade and Industry has approved the charter of the commercial and industrial partnership "Muir and Merilize". The founders of the trading house accept - V.V. Philipp and A.A. Maryliz - assume the rights and obligations of the founders of the partnership, transferring the asset and liability of their enterprise, as well as real estate, to its ownership. The fixed capital is determined at 3,000,000 rubles, divided into registered shares, 3,000 rubles each. every.
http://starosti.ru .
The new building attracted worldwide attention and was recognized as an architectural masterpiece. The management of the trading house was aware of its importance for the center of Moscow and decided not to put the brand name "MM" on the facade. New shop was opened at Christmas in 1908 and aroused great interest due to the novelty of technical equipment, European comfort and the beauty of the design of the halls.
With the opening of the new department store, Muir & Merilizes reached the pinnacle of its glory. In addition to the store on Theater Square, for him, according to the project of the same Roman Klein, the "Furniture and Bronze Factory" was built on Malaya Gruzinskaya (now the "Rassvet" factory). In 1908-1917, the turnover of the new store and the scope of the company as a whole grew rapidly.
By 1913, the store had 80 departments. In terms of turnover and equipment trading floors Muir and Merilizes was not inferior to such a London department store as Harrods.
The innovations of the Muir & Marylies department store were an information desk, a waiting room, a Moscow information service, and two high-speed electric elevators for customers.
After the revolution, the department store closed, but not for long.
March 10, 1922. Thundering orchestra. The lobby is filled with guests - numerous guests who came to the opening of the largest department store in the capital - Mostorg. The chairman of the board of the store, with a jingle of scissors, cut the scarlet ribbon. Applause broke out in the crowd. The orchestra played a touch.
Muscovites for a long time remembered the old name of the department store - "Muir and Maryliz" - and often used it in conversation: "... Here's 8 rubles and 15 kopecks for the tram, go to Muir, buy a good collar with a chain," wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in " The heart of a dog...
The main flow of buyers filled the department store after five o'clock, when the working day of the workers of Moscow plants and factories ended. Often, turners, locksmiths, and machinists crowded in oiled, smelling of heated metal and fuel oil overalls without even having time to change. They crumpled good-quality cloth in their hands, tried on strong shoes, chose colorful chintz for their wives' dresses. In the Central Department Store, a wide credit was opened for workers - they could take goods according to special limit books.
In 1933, the Central Department Store for the first time in the country organized a pilot universal trade in industrial goods. High Quality at increased prices.
With the beginning of the war, the windows of the houses ceased to glow, the shop windows went out, and the appearance shop - the place of elegant mannequins in the windows was taken by sandbags, mirrored windows disappeared behind plywood shields. The premises on the upper floors of the department store turned into barracks. During the Great Patriotic War, the Central Department Store provided workers with a card system, and barracks were located in the premises on the upper floors of the department store.
After the war, separate factories were attached to the department store, which produced a wide range of goods only for the Central Department Store according to its orders.
Among the goods of daily demand in the Central Department Store were sold: wicks for kerosene and kerosene gas, mica, shopping bags "string bags" with wooden handles, children's brooms. In total, up to 17,000 items of goods were on sale in the store daily, ranging from a needle for 2 kopecks to ladies' fur coats.
In the 1970s, a new building was added to the Central Department Store. The area of the department store has been expanded.
In 1992, the Central Department Store changed its organizational and legal form and was transformed into an open Joint-Stock Company. In 1995, it was decided to reconstruct the building in order to expand retail space and optimize the assortment structure of the store.
The purpose of the ongoing reconstruction is to expand retail space through a more rational layout and organization of retail space.
In late 1995 - early 1996, the Central Department Store held an open international tender for the creation of a department store modernization project and its implementation. The tender was won by the German company ReDesign Einrichtung GmbH (Germany), one of the well-known design and construction organizations that participated in the reconstruction of the largest European supermarkets and department stores.
Modernization was carried out without stopping trade. After that, the TSUM area increased to 33,000 square meters with a qualitative improvement in the store's infrastructure (convenient access for customers to goods, modern elevators and escalators, automation of goods handling, customer rest areas, etc.).
The cost of the upgrade was about $22 million. The required capital investment was covered 50% through the third share issue and 50% through profits, depreciation, investment from trading partners and borrowings.
Reconstruction and overhaul the central building of the Central Department Store were completed in 1997, after which the store acquired a new, modern look that is not inferior to international analogues.
In 2007, a new building of the Central Department Store was built on the site of the former square.
It turned out to be a layer cake. In the distance to the right - actually "Mur and Maryliz", a white layer - the second stage of the Central Department Store (1970s) and, finally, the gray bunker part closest to us - the third, newest stage of the department store.
Photo 1908
Photo late 1960s - early 1970s Former trading house of Khomyakov. Built in the 1900s. Built in Soviet time.
Photo taken in 1900. To the right of the Bolshoi Theater you can clearly see the old building of Muir and Merilize.
Photo from the end of the 1910s.
1908 Fire.
Photo taken in 1926 by A. Rodchenko. View from the corner of Petrovka and the Kuznetsk bridge. The photograph clearly shows the unpreserved buildings, on the site of which the new queues of the Central Department Store are now located.
Photo 1935-1937 The same look.
Photo 1935-1937 Service entrance to the Central Department Store from Petrovka
Photo from the end of the 1930s.
Photo of the late 1940s - early 1950s.
Photo late 1970s - early 1980s
Photo taken in 1925. View of the Solodovnikovsky passage on the Kuznetsky bridge.
During the Great Patriotic War, the building was destroyed by an enemy bomb. And in 1946 it was dismantled.
Photo taken in 1947 by E. Evzirikhin.
On the site of the demolished building, according to the project of the landscape architect V.I. Dolganov, a square was laid out.
The 19th-century Moscow inhabitant liked to look into new places and make purchases. Extensive bazaars and crowded markets like the famous Sukharevka have firmly entered the metropolitan practice. True, it took an incredible amount of time to visit trading establishments.
Different streets and parts of the city had their own specialization, and therefore a busy Muscovite could not go in the morning for fresh herbs and mushrooms, in the afternoon for fabric, and in the evening for kerosene. Usually the servants did the shopping. During the years of economic prosperity, in the second half of the 19th century, a sufficient number of rich people appeared in the city, for whom it would be convenient to make most of their purchases in one place, without constant travel from Zamoskvorechye to Okhotny Ryad. Soon the dreams of the Moscow bourgeois became a reality.
On the threshold of great reforms in St. Petersburg, two Scots who moved to Russia, Andrew Muir and Archibald Merilize, started a common business. They registered their trademark, Muir and Marylies, in 1857.
The name sometimes confuses buyers - Mikhail Prishvin ironically wrote that he represented Muir and Merilize as a dignified German couple, where Muir is the husband and Merilize is his wife. As a result, he was very surprised when he learned that Merilize was a strict Englishman, and also a passionate hunter, who killed eight black grouse at a time. Journalist and satirist Vlas Doroshevich in the list of characters in the parody of the opera "Dobrynya Nikitich" introduces two boyars, Myur and Maryliza, constantly exclaiming: "How Russian it is!"
At the end of the 19th century, the company acquired a third co-owner and manager, Walter Philip, who conducted business until the revolution itself. Having moved to Moscow in the 1880s, Muir and Maryliz changed several addresses at once, until he found a place of permanent registration in the city. He settled at the very beginning of Petrovka, next to the fashionable Kuznetsky Most and two main theaters. "Muir & Merilizes" relied on an extensive price list and inclusiveness - here constantly opened more and more new departments - from carpets and perfumes to sporting goods. The owners of the trading house sent catalogs free of charge and made it so that the representatives of the middle class looked for purchases mainly on Theater Square. In 1891, about 1,000 people worked for Muir and Marylies.
Photo 1900
Witnesses rained down on the new enterprise. Anton Chekhov jokingly mentioned in a letter, pointing to the dominance of women in dramaturgy: “... Women with plays multiply by leaps and bounds, and, I think, there is only one way to combat this disaster: to call all the women to the Muir store and Maryliese and the store to burn. The writer's sister recalled that in Chekhov's Melikhovo estate there lived mongrel puppies with the nicknames Muir and Maryliz. Constant mockery of the trading enterprise did not prevent Chekhov not only from regularly visiting the store, but also from ordering goods by mail. Anton Pavlovich wrote from Yalta: “Dear Masha, tell Meriliz as soon as possible to send me a lambskin hat, which he calls a bucket (N 216) in his autumn catalog, black astrakhan; choose a soft one, size 59 centimeters ... If the American caps (N 213) are warm, then let Maryliz send a cap as well.
Pages of the catalog "Mura and Maryliza"
However, the successfully launched commercial undertaking was constantly pursued by fires. In 1892, fire for the first time went through the buildings of Muir and Marylise, and on November 24, 1900, it completely destroyed the building. The future poet Vladislav Khodasevich remembered the gigantic disaster: “The fire flared up, the wind started, and from the direction of Muir and Maryliza it carried heat, smoke and burning. When the wind intensified, then some brightly burning banners flew up into the sky, like scarlet banners - these were whole piles of matter burning, turning around from gusts of wind. Some pieces fell to the ground near us, and people shied away from them, and some daredevils ran towards them, hoping that maybe not all the material was burned.
Photo 1908 Fire of the Maly Theater
The constant occurrences somewhat unsettled the owners of the general store, but then they plucked up the courage and decided to turn Muir and Marylees into a real temple of commerce, which bore a striking resemblance to its current counterparts. As an architect, they invited the wonderful master Roman Klein, a Russified German, the author of the Pushkin Museum and the tea house on Myasnitskaya. During the construction, it was decided to use only reinforced concrete, which is coming into fashion, and the famous engineer Vladimir Shukhov undertook the design of load-bearing structures. “The whole building will consist exclusively of stone, iron and glass,” newspapers intrigued Muscovites. As a result, by 1908, a seven-story neo-Gothic monster had grown up on Petrovka, clearly reminding the townspeople of the English origin of their founding fathers. The hosts were guided by the best world samples, in particular, by Le Bon Marche, the Parisian hotbed of ladies' happiness.
Photo 1908
For Muscovites, firm prices came as a surprise, because they are used to bargaining with passion and for a long time. Many older ladies were even offended, not being able to lose at least a ruble or two. Looking at the catalogs of “Mura and Maryliza”, you get a rare pleasure - a fawn hat “Nansen” with a cotton lining, a hat made of desman dyed sable, a tailcoat suit made of black crepe, a drape coat made of natural kangaroo fur, suspenders with braided ends ... Still It is a pity that those gallant times are gone forever. Captious young ladies chose fabrics in a special dark room to see how their future dresses would look in the light of gas jets. The pretty girls who worked in the store were affectionately called "murmerilizochki". It was in this status that the actress Lidia Koreneva began her Moscow career, she traded in the department of French lingerie. If the customer was dissatisfied with the product, then it could be returned back. Customers were pampered with electric elevators, and there was also a ladies' coffee room in the building.
Photo from the late 1910s
Before the revolution, Muir and Merilize had 78 departments, and the number of employees was approaching three thousand. The trading house had its own furniture factory and iron foundry. Until now, on the streets of the city, Mokhovaya and Pyatnitskaya, an attentive observer can stumble upon old hatches with an ornate inscription "Muir and Maryliz". Witty summer residents who filled the villages near Moscow with late spring, any tiny grocery store was called "mur-meriliz." The fashion store began to be mentioned in verses:
The sky looks stormy and gloomy.
Fur coats flashed on the street.
An elegant lady by Muir
Carried expensive purchases.
The townspeople especially enjoyed the December Christmas markets. The owners of the trading house staged real performances - a tiny parade parade appeared in the space of the shop windows, dozens of dolls paced and did gymnastics, an important mechanical general rode a horse in front of them. Children eagerly rushed from hares to airships and monkeys. In 1899, when the Anglo-Boer War began, and the little African people aroused well-deserved sympathy, the toy “Metal clockwork drill on horseback” appeared. Flower girls displayed white lilies of the valley and cyclamens in the windows. In the narrow aisles, it was often crowded with visitors. It was necessary to warn buyers in advance through newspapers so that they would come for gifts in advance.
Photos of the late 1960s - early 1970s
For several years, the shop windows of the trading giant were boarded up tightly, but the times of NEP breathed into the building new life. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote with surprise: “The mass of Muir and Marylis is still silently and empty blackening with its huge glass, but already on the lower floor the giant painted caricatures of Noulens and Poe have disappeared from the window, and rubbish is being swept out of the doors. And Moscow already knows that in February Mostorg's department store with 25 branches will be opened here and the former directors of Muir will join his board. By 1997, another reconstruction of the store was completed, but this is a completely different story.
Pavel Gnilorybov,
Moscow historian, coordinator of the "Mospeshkom" project
Digging through links on the subject of research (see list at the end), was surprised to find that initially Trading house"Muir and Merilize", the predecessor of the Central Department Store, looked completely different. There was not even a trace of Art Nouveau with gothic elements, which is shown to us now in the city center.
The Muir and Marylies Commercial and Industrial Partnership was founded in St. Petersburg in 1843 by the Scots Marylies Archibals and Andrew Muir. Looking ahead, I will say that at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the company was managed by a third co-owner - Walter Philip.
Andrew Muir, although a Scot and brother-in-law of Maryliza (wife's brother), in 1867 became a Moscow merchant of the 1st guild, later - a legal successor. It was he who opened a branch of the company in Moscow (originally in the form of a trading house, in 1907 it was transformed into a partnership). Marylies remained an English subject.
Departing from the topic, it can be added that by 1867 Mr. Muir had lived in Russia for 15 years and was returning to St. Petersburg from a trip to Paris and London in a nice company. Lewis Carroll and Reverend Liddon, who decided to travel to Russia, turned out to be his chance companions.
“He very kindly answered our questions,” writes Carroll in his diary, “gave us a lot of advice on what to see in Petersburg, how Russian words are pronounced, and drew a very gloomy perspective, saying that only a few speak some as an example of the unusually long words found in Russian, our companion gave the word "defended", which, when written in English letters, looks like this: "zashtsheeshtshayoushtsheekhsya."
Start of trading.
In Moscow, Muir & Maryliz Trading House (a wholesale shop for women's hats and haberdashery) has opened in the most cost-effective location - in the center, on Petrovka, opposite the Bolshoi Theatre. From 1878 it was rented, and in 1885 it was bought by Golofteevsky ( three-story building of the shopping gallery on the left, built in the 1840s by Prince Mikhail Golitsyn and called the "Golitsyn Gallery". Later, the gallery was bought by the merchant Golofteev and renamed it in his honor) passage on Theater Square. The gallery was demolished in 1974 under the new building of the Central Department Store.
1. Gallery Golitsyn (in everyday life - Golofteevsky passage). (1835-1839) Architect M. Bykovsky. It existed until 1912, and in 1913 the Golofteevsky Passage was erected in its place.
2. Solodovnikovsky passage. (1862-1884) Architect N.Nikitin
3. Alexandrovsky Passage (circa 1865)
8. Petrovsky passage. (1904-1906) Architect S. Kalugin
9. New Golofteevsky passage. (1912-1913) Architect I. Rerberg. It was erected from reinforced concrete, glass and metal on the site of the Golitsyn Gallery, the last building of this type that appeared in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century.
A few years later, the Trading House became a department store, and in order not to risk the ruble, it switched from wholesale to retail. 41 thousand names - the assortment of goods of the department store. Cow milker and piano. Camera and baby pacifier. Hunting rifle and sausage. Needles and beds. Loudspeakers and boots. Flutes and pots. The department store is supplied with a wide variety of goods by five thousand handicraftsmen. Handicraft products are first of all more reliable. And since the main buyers of the department store are workers and employees, 95 percent of the goods are consumer goods, handicraft goods are especially popular. State-owned enterprises, such as, for example, sewing, do not provide the store with the required number of products. And demand is growing. The store expanded its area by 50 percent - a large neighboring building was bought. Planted people to count buyers at the entrance. And they counted 31 thousand per day. This means that a whole county town passed through here in a day. A million per month - for 850 sellers.
Success retail store confirmed by the speed with which the department store opened new departments. In addition to hats and fabrics, ladies' fashionable clothes and shoes, furniture, dishes, sporting goods, carpets, etc. appeared in it. "Muir and Maryliz" became the first store in Russia for middle-class people, where you could buy almost everything except groceries. His fame resounded throughout the country. Muir & Merilize sent catalogs of their products free of charge, and any resident from Warsaw to Vladivostok could order the goods by mail. Purchases worth more than 75, and then 25 rubles were sent to the customer anywhere in Russia, and the store assumed the costs of delivery within the European part. Four times a year, at the beginning of each season, catalogs of goods were published, which were sent free of charge to everyone in the same way as fabric samples.
The goods here were of excellent quality, the sellers were impeccably polite: when the buyer was dissatisfied, the goods were immediately replaced with a new one. For children, going to Muir and Merilizes was a real treat, because here they were waiting for delightful toys. Labels with names were attached to each. "Horses made of wood with wool", "A bear in a clockwork fur tumbling", "A clockwork tin seal, zigzags".
When hiring department heads, store owners did not rely on their ability to bargain, so they introduced fixed prices. This aroused the indignation of those elderly Muscovites who were proud of their ability to buy goods at minimal prices. In addition to fixed prices, the department store's innovations were: an obligation to take back or exchange goods, periodic sales, daily delivery of goods to all parts of the city, and price reduction due to increased sales.
Until 1891, wholesale trade was still carried out on the top floor of the department store. By the end of the century, the total number of departments in the store of Muir and Marylis reached 44, and the number of employees approached a thousand. "Such a huge store, - journalists of that time noted, - in terms of the interior, as well as in terms of the abundance and variety of goods sold in it, there is nowhere else in Russia." A feature copied from London department stores was especially striking: in a special dark room with gas lamps, picky fashionistas could judge the color of silk fabrics in the evening lighting.
Fires.
In 1892, the Muir Marylies caught fire. The fire was soon extinguished, but the damage was very noticeable.
“The premises were fully equipped with automatic fire extinguishers,” wrote store owner Andrew Muir, “and the damage to the goods seems to have resulted from them and from the water supplied by fire engines, rather than from fire.” The losses were covered by insurance, but two firefighters died in the blaze. This misfortune further increased the despondency of the owners, caused by the decline of trade and the onset of famine in Russia.
On the evening of November 24, 1900, a second fire broke out in the store, after which only the walls remained of the building. It was so strong that the performance at the Bolshoi Theater broke down - the hall was filled with acrid smoke, and the frightened spectators fled to their homes. "Mur-Marylees" this time burned out completely. Moscow was flooded with bright red light for many miles around, and crowds of people flocked from the suburbs to watch such an event. However, nearby buildings were not damaged by the fire, and there were no human casualties. After the fire in Moscow, a children's rhyme became popular: "Mary is crying, Lisa is crying - there was a fire at Marylis."
On Saturday morning, the next day, all the employees of the trading house gathered at the smoking ruins and anxiously awaited the decision of their fate. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they read out the management's decision: "All employees continue to pay salaries on the same basis until the organization of a new commercial premises." And this despite the fact that the number of employees approached a thousand! It is worth noting that the owners of the trading house have always been attentive to their employees. For example, the store was open until seven o'clock in the evening, on Sundays the department store had a day off, and in addition to salaries, employees received a free two-course lunch and tea. For Europe, such an attitude towards employees was the norm, but for Moscow it was an unusual innovation.
Shortly after the fire at the corner of Petrovka and Kuznetsky Most, the top three floors of Khomyakov's house were rented. It housed the Muir & Marylies department store until the opening of the new building in 1908. True, the owners of the department store had to wait a little with the construction of a new building. On the one hand, the loss from the fire knocked the company out of financial balance (although the premises were insured in the First Russian Insurance Company for 450 thousand rubles, and the goods - for 1 million rubles), and on the other hand, it became possible to build more modern building, surpassing all other stores in Moscow. It was decided to build it on the site of the burnt one.
Second wind.
The project was developed by the famous architect R.I. Klein. The building of the new store, with an Anglo-Gothic facade and Art Nouveau elements, was built in 1906-1908.
The small size of the land forced the architect to "pull" the building up. Instead of the previous three floors and a basement, the new store has seven floors and two basements - the highest trading establishment in Moscow.
Roman Ivanovich Klein was born on March 31, 1858. After graduating from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Klein entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1878) and graduated in 1882. Then for two years he had an internship in Italy - in Ravenna and Rome, in the workshop of Charles Garnier, the builder of the Paris Grand Opera.
Practical activities architect began in the late 1880s. One of the first known buildings of Klein - Middle malls(1890-1891) - stylized as Old Russian architecture. In the 1890s, Klein also built the Trekhgorny brewery, stylized as the Middle Ages, several mansions, educational institutions, Perlov's apartment building on Myasnitskaya Street and a whole complex of hospital buildings on Maiden's Field.
The main goal was to build a "world-class" facility that provides all the conveniences to customers and rationalizes trade from small shops to one large department store.
During its construction, for the first time in Russia, reinforced concrete was used. The technology was borrowed from America, where multi-story buildings were erected with its use. This method of construction made it possible to significantly increase retail space due to thinner walls. The reinforced concrete frame on which the entire structure rests made it possible, perhaps for the first time in Moscow, to use a system of hinged external walls, the display windows of which provided natural light to the interior.
Klein sought to emphasize the linear structure of the façade, but fell short of a completely linear modernist aesthetic in the spirit of Sullivan. Like some of his American contemporaries, he gave the building a Gothic décor, especially noticeable along the roofline and in the corner turrets. In addition to spiers, vaulted windows and floral ornaments, a large rose window stands out prominently in one of the corners of the southern façade.
However, all these details do not disturb in any noticeable way general perception building as a frame rectilinear structure. And the ornament itself was made using new materials such as zinc (with a copper coating to imitate bronze) and marble chips. For the first time in Russian construction practice, mirror glass showcases were installed in the store on the first and second floors.
The total cost of the building was 1.5 million gold rubles.
Although the store was not a skyscraper, the seven-story building was considered a "high-rise" at that time. It attracted worldwide attention and was recognized as an architectural masterpiece. The management of the trading house was aware of its importance for the center of Moscow and decided not to put the brand name "MM" on the facade.
1. The material of the modern facade is marble chips. 2. The only "M" ... On the already modern extension from the Neglinka side. 3. A fragment of an old decor.
The new "Mur-Meriliz" opened its doors in 1908, aroused great interest due to the novelty of technical equipment, European comfort and beauty of the design of the halls and immediately became popular. After that, the Muir and Marylies department store reached the pinnacle of its glory. The store was considered the most luxurious in the city. Here they traded clothes, shoes, jewelry, perfumes, hunting weapons, furniture, household items, stationery. Journalists admired: "There is no such huge store in terms of the interior, as well as the abundance and variety of goods sold in it, positively nowhere in Russia." But the most important thing is that Muir and Meiriliz introduced innovations unprecedented for Russian trade, firstly, they published a catalog of goods for which customers made orders, and, secondly, a special windowless room appeared in the store, lit by gas lamps - a fitting room .
Customers entered the department store through the main entrance, at which a friendly doorman was on duty. True, usually, before entering the Gothic castle, people admired the huge shop windows, decorated with electric arc bulbs, modeled on the best department stores in Germany. To the left of the main entrance is the perfume department, so guests were greeted with a wonderful fragrance. A double staircase with two bronze floor lamps and electric lamps was one of the highlights of the department store. Standing on it, the buyer could view the largest number of goods.
The second floor of Muir & Merilizes was reserved mainly for the sale of ladies' toilets. On the third floor they offered women's dresses, and men's and children's suits, sporting goods. There, on the third floor, was the waiting room. This room, along with a reference and information service for Moscow, was an innovation for the Mother See. In addition, "conductors who own foreign languages”, and therefore foreign buyers felt quite comfortable. The fourth floor housed the administration, departments of children's toys, musical instruments and a restaurant. In the basement of the building were economic departments and distribution department. Elevators helped customers move from floor to floor (there were two in total). Lifting machines were the pride of the updated store, because they first appeared in a Moscow trading establishment!
The layout of the premises was as convenient as possible for both buyers and employees. The spacious hat and watch workshops on the sixth floor had electric lighting, in contrast to the salesrooms, which were almost all lit by gas. On the top floor there was also a doctor's office, a smoking room for workers and a janitor's room. On two floors there was a separate kitchen for employees.
Many aspired to get into the service of Muir and Marylise. This job was prestigious and well paid. Muscovites affectionately called the young ladies who worked in the store murmerilizochki. Fans met them in the evenings at the store with bouquets and sweets. No other trading establishment in Moscow knew such a meeting of suitors.
By 1913, the store had 80 departments. Net profit was one million rubles, and two years later it exceeded one and a half million. In terms of turnover and equipment of trading floors, Muir and Marylies was not inferior to such a London department store as Harrods. Until 1917, the turnover of the new store and the scope of the company as a whole grew rapidly.
New times.
Immediately after the revolution, the wonderful shop closed. “The mass of Muir and Maryliza ... silently and empty turns black with its huge glasses,” wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in the Trade Renaissance. In 1918, the store was nationalized, and in 1922 it reopened as the Central Department Store (TSUM).
On March 10, 1922, with a large crowd of people, the largest store in the capital, Mostorg, opened here to the orchestra. But Muscovites for a long time remembered the old name - "Muir and Maryliz" - and often used it in conversation: "Here's 8 rubles and 15 kopecks for the tram, go to Muir, buy a good collar with a chain," wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in Dog heart".
From the very beginning, more than two hundred Komsomol members came to TSUM, who worked together with experienced store employees. The main flow of buyers filled the department store after five o'clock, when the working day of the workers of Moscow plants and factories ended. Often, they did not even have time to change clothes, in overalls oiled, smelling of heated metal and fuel oil, it was crowded with turners, mechanics, and machinists. They crumpled good-quality cloth in their hands, tried on strong shoes, chose colorful chintz for their wives' dresses. In the Central Department Store, a wide credit was opened for workers - they could take goods according to special limit books.
With the development of the NEP, the Central Department Store flourished. But with the beginning of the war, the shop windows went out, the place of smart mannequins in them was taken by sandbags, the mirrored windows were hidden behind plywood shields. The premises on the upper floors of the department store turned into barracks. In difficult wartime conditions, the Central Department Store clearly ensured the supply of workers through the rationing system. And after the war, separate factories were attached to the department store, which produced goods in a wide range only for the Central Department Store on his orders. Since the mid-1940s, the store has expanded the sale of consumer goods, was the initiator of the introduction of self-service trading practice, selling by samples.
After the Great Patriotic War, the damaged Golofteevsky and Aleksandrovsky passages were dismantled. In 1974, a new store building was built in their place (architects S.I. Nikulin, Yu.V. Omelchenko, A.A. Kazakov). The store building is equipped with high-speed elevators, escalator galleries and decorated in accordance with international standards.
Among the goods of daily demand in the Central Department Store were sold: wicks for kerosene and kerosene gas, mica, shopping bags "string bags" with wooden handles, and even children's brooms. In total, up to 17,000 items of goods were on sale in the store daily, ranging from a needle for 2 kopecks to ladies' fur coats. In Soviet times, almost every inhabitant of the country visited the Moscow Central Department Store at least once.
In 1992, the Central Department Store was corporatized, and three years later it was decided to reconstruct the building. The modernization was carried out without stopping trade and cost $22 million. The work was completed in 1997, after which the store acquired a new, modern look that is not inferior to international analogues, and the sign "Muir and Merilize" appeared on it again.
1. Packaging 2001. 2. Modern TSUM: a huge boutique. (photo from the article "Palace of the God of Commerce")
The construction of a new additional department store building with a restaurant complex and underground parking has begun.
And everything would be fine - development is development. But look:
1. Historically, there were no doors. Was open gallery. And the building seemed more airy - it seemed to stand on supports, hung in the air ... And it was more convenient for buyers - in the rain you could walk there, much more pleasant than on an ordinary sidewalk. 2. New owners have laid the passage, thus expanding the store even more. It is not clear how permission was given for such a restructuring. Rather, it is understandable, of course. A light stone is a remake, a dark stone is an old one. 3. Below, instead of shop windows, there was an open space.
Now it's hard to imagine Theater Square without a gray Gothic castle rising behind the Maly Theatre.
When two Scotsmen Archibald Marylies and Andrew Muir moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow in the 1880s, they immediately settled on the Kuznetsky Most. The building in the corner of Theater Square was the third store of successful entrepreneurs. It was a corner three-story house of the mid-late 19th century. Previously, the Golofteevsky passage, built by M.D. Bykovsky for M.N. Golitsyn, was located there.
The Muir and Maryliz trading house was popular among Muscovites. Switching to retail trade in 1900, the company became the first Russian department store.
Muir and Merilize published a catalog, according to which it was possible to order any product worth more than 25 rubles in all points of Russia.
It should be noted that the trade in the store was established at the highest level. The sellers were distinguished by polite treatment, disliked goods could be replaced with a new one. "Muir and Merilize" set fixed prices for goods, which distinguished the store from other Moscow stores fashion clothes. The ladies who liked to haggle could only be reassured by the fact that sales were sometimes held in the store.
On November 24, 1900, a fire broke out in the building of the trading house in the corner of Theater Square, it was the second fire in a row that hit the building, but this time the house was completely burned out, only the walls remained. Muir and Merilize decided to entrust the project of the new trading house to the architect R.I. Klein.
The Scottish origin of the store owners prompted the architect to create a trading house in the English Gothic style. The metal structures and the frame of the building were designed by engineer V.G. Shukhov. The use of new technologies made it possible to create spacious rooms with huge showcase windows. And here "Muir and Merilize" turned out to be pioneers - for the first time reinforced concrete was used at the construction site.
In 1908, on Christmas Day, the new building was opened. The store was equipped with the latest technology. Customers could use electric elevators, a reference room and a waiting room were equipped for convenience.
In 1910, this is already the most big store in Moscow, 80 branches were filled with toilet articles, furniture, crockery, carpets and toys.
Building after the revolution shopping center empty for a short time. Comfortable commercial premises in 1922 he occupied Mostorg's department store. The opening was solemn, Muscovites liked the store, but for a long time they called it after the first owners. Professor Preobrazhensky from Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog" sends Zina "to Muir" for a collar for Sharik.
Although the store received a new sonorous name TsUM already in 1922, it took root only in the early 1930s.
During the Great patriotic war barracks were placed in the spacious premises of the Central Department Store.
After the war, the building was returned to TSUM, in the 1970s a new building grew nearby, trade area expanded.
Ice cream sold in TSUM could compete with ice cream in GUM and Detsky Mir. There were long queues for crispy waffle cups with scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.
In the late 1990s, the TSUM building underwent a major overhaul and reconstruction by a German firm. It is still a fashion store that is not inferior to its international counterparts.
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