Spaso House
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Spaso House in Moscow, a listed Neoclassical Revival building at No. 10 Spasopeskovskaya Square, originally built as Nikolay Vtorov's mansion in 1913-1915, has been the residence of the U.S. Ambassador in USSR and later Russia since 1933.[1]
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[edit] Architecture
The site around Spasopeskovskaya Square has been occupied by upper class mansions since late XVIII сеntury. Nikolai Vtorov's house replaced an earlier residence of Lobanov-Rostovsky family. Directly next to it, at no. 8 and 6, are two original Empire style mansions, built shortly after the Fire of 1812.
The building was designed by architects Vladimir Adamovich and Vladimir Mayat, key figures of Neoclassical Revival movement of 1905-1917. Externally, the building directly references the Gagarin House, built by Joseph Bové in 1820-s. Gagarin House, a canonical example of muscovite Empire style, was destroyed by an air raid in 1941. Another likely reference could be Polovtsev House in Saint Petersburg by Ivan Fomin, completed in 1913[2]. Externally and internally, Vtorov House was a thorough recreation of early 1820-s upper class estates with palladian windows and a perfectly symmetrical floorplan. The building was designed to look smaller than it was in reality; during the 1976 bicentennial of USA celebration, it accommodated 3001 guests and staff.
[edit] Modern history
After nationalization in 1917, Vtorov's mansion housed state institutions and Soviet elite apartments, including those of foreign affairs commissar Georgy Chicherin. The first Ambassador to live at Spaso House was William C. Bullitt. Charles W. Thayer, his secretary, documents life in Spaso House in the book Bears in the Caviar,[3] named for a party at Spaso House in which animals from the zoo were brought in for entertainment.
A Spring Festival ball on 22 April 1935 at Spaso House was said to be the model for the masked ball in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita.[1][4] The Ambassador’s study in Spaso House was the site of the Great Seal Bug, which was planted in 1946 and discovered by Ambassador George F. Kennan in 1952.[5] Rebecca Matlock, wife of Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, Jr. describes activities at Spaso House from 1933 to 1991 in her book At Spaso House: People and Meetings.[6]
[edit] U.S. Ambassadors at Spaso House
| Ambassador | Date of arrival |
|---|---|
| William C. Bullitt | November 1933 |
| Joseph E. Davies | November 1936 |
| Laurence A. Steinhardt | March 1939 |
| William H. Standley | February 1942 |
| W. Averell Harriman | October 1943 |
| Walter Bedell Smith | March 1946 |
| Alan G. Kirk | May 1949 |
| George F. Kennan | March 1952 |
| Charles E. Bohlen | March 1953 |
| Llewellyn E. Thompson | June 1957 |
| Foy D. Kohler | August 1962 |
| Llewellyn E. Thompson | December 1967 |
| Jacob D. Beam | April 1969 |
| Walter J. Stoessel, Jr. | February 1974 |
| Malcolm Toon | January 1977 |
| Thomas J. Watson, Jr. | October 1979 |
| Arthur A. Hartman | October 1981 |
| Jack F. Matlock, Jr. | April 1987 |
| Robert S. Strauss | August 1991 |
| Thomas R. Pickering | May 1993 |
| James F. Collins | September 1997 |
| Alexander Vershbow | July 2001 |
| William Joseph Burns | July 2005 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Spaso House U.S. Embassy Moscow website
- ^ Russian: Борисова Е. А., Стернин, Г. Ю., Русский неоклассицизм, М., «Галарт», 2002, ISBN 5-269-00898-X, c.126, 128
- ^ Thayer, Charles W. Bears in the Caviar, Lippincott (1951) ASIN B0007DZQEU
- ^ Moss, Kevin The Spaso House Ball Middlebury College, Vermont
- ^ Squire, Patricia Interview with Rebecca Burrum Matlock Frontline Diplomacy, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (January 11, 1990)
- ^ Matlock, Rebecca “Spaso House” People and meetings: Notes of the wife of an American ambassador (in Russian) Transl. from English by T. Kudriavtseva, Moscow: EKSMO, Algoritm, 2004 ISBN 5699054979
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