Browse Items (20 total)

This photograph from 1912 shows the oldest buildings on Nowomiejska Street. Raised around the year 1820, these homes were intended for wool weavers settling in the vicinity of the New Town (Nowe Miasto). After World War I, these buildings were…

One of numerous Bałuty courtyards pictured in wintertime. The roofs of wooden houses are covered with a thick layer of snow, and large icicles hang from their eaves. In the courtyard, next to a wooden shed, we can see a large piece of…

In this Bałuty courtyard, several children are having fun filling enameled buckets with water from a pump. Not far from the buckets there stands a large barrel—such barrels were used for making sour cabbage and storing salted herring.

The craftsmen arriving from Prussia settled mainly in the sauthern part of the city. During the first half of the 19th century most factories were located here. The central locale of this industrial quarter was a plaza called the Fabryczny (Factory)…

Residential buildings constructed of wood, sharing a neighborhood with factory chimneys, were a familiar sight in Łódź before World War I. Under the Second People's Republic of Poland (1918-1939), the situation changed and such drewniaki ("wood…

One of the few places in Łódź which looks practically the same today as it did prior to World War II. This shot was taken from a point along what were formerly the city's eastern limits. The tram tracks pictured in this photo were laid in 1924. The…

Wąska Street — a perfect name, if ever there was one, for this narrow street found in Bałuty. The wooden structures and fences, lack of sidewalks, cobblestone surface and rain gutter all add to its lackluster appearance. Several barefoot children,…

A view of Lutomirska Street from St. Mary's Church. Poor single-storey houses form a drab backdrop for the daily commotion which as a rule dominated here, in the very center of the Old Town. Numerous pedestrians rush past on both sides of the street,…

Krótka Street was typical of Bałuty in the years leading up to World War II. The cobblestone pavement possessed rain gutters but no sidewalks, encouraging pedestrians to walk across its full expanse. The single- and two-storey homes, usually made of…

A wooden building housing W. Orensztajn's hardware store, near Bałuty Market. Cars and open-air carriages are parked along Zgierska Street. Because of the proximity of the market the street is very busy.