In Almaty, a tall metal fence that had hidden a historic building from passersby for more than 20 years has been dismantled — the merchant Shakhvorostov house at 99 Nazarbayev Avenue. The facade has also been renovated, and one of the city's oldest and most beautiful merchant houses is once again clearly visible from the street, infohub.kz reports.
The Shakhvorostov house was built around 1890 in what was then Verny. It is a single-story wooden structure on a high stone foundation, decorated with carved and molded details. The building is listed as a monument of history and culture of republican significance.
The architect is believed to have been the renowned Andrei Zenkov. The house belonged to the Shakhvorostov family, one of Verny's prominent merchant dynasties. The family was engaged in trade and owned shops and trading rows. After the death of Grigory Shakhvorostov, his sons Sergei and Pyotr invested their inheritance in building a cloth factory in Kargaly. The enterprise began operating in the early 20th century and later became a major producer of cloth, including for army greatcoats during World War I.
After the revolution, the house was nationalized. In 1926, the city's first medical school opened there, and from the 1960s the building housed a museum of the history of healthcare. In January 1982, the Shakhvorostov house was added to the list of monuments of history and culture of republican significance of the Kazakh SSR.
Later, diplomatic missions moved in: from 1992 the building was used by the U.S. embassy, and then the French consulate general operated there.
It was during the American mission that the tall metal fence appeared around the house. As a result, the historic building was hidden from residents for about 25 years. Local historians and Almaty residents repeatedly drew attention to the problem.
Moreover, the fence issue only began to move very recently. In early September, the Ministry of Culture said it planned to dismantle it. At that time, the house was on the books of the Institute of Political Studies, a joint-stock company under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was preparing to draft scientific and project documentation for restoration. The minimum cost of repairs was estimated at at least 15 million tenge.
However, full-scale restoration had not yet begun at that point due to lack of funding. The building was leased out, and the tenant had no complaints about its technical condition.
Now, judging by recent photos, the fence has finally been removed and the facade tidied up. After several decades behind a metal fence, the Shakhvorostov house can finally be properly seen from Nazarbayev Avenue.
Earlier, Kursiv LifeStyle reported that the historic Kyzyl Tan House of Fabrics was fenced off ahead of repairs.