Petersburg/Petersburg: Novel and City, 1900–1921

9. 28 Nevsky Prospect: The Sewing Machine, the Seamstress, and Narrative

238 9 28 Nevsky Prospect The Sewing Machine, the Seamstress, and Narrative   Since the eighteenth century, two spires have pierced the sky of Petersburg and punctuated its skyline. They belong to the Admiralty Building, which is at the bottom of Nevsky Prospect and located on the right side of the Neva River, and to the Peter and Paul Cathedral on the left side. Andrey Bely in Petersburg calls these spires needles, although the residents of the city refer only to the Admiralty spire as a needle. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the globe held up by two women soaring over the cupola of the House of Singer on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Catherine Canal introduced into the city skyline another architectural high point that was neither a house of worship nor a government building.1 It was affiliated with commerce and the growing role of foreign investment in the Russian economy. The needle advertised by Singer— the sharp instrument of the modern sewing machine—was not metaphoric but real. Instead of the sublime vertical trajectory of the spires, this needle had a very practical function, whose purpose in the words of a contemporary journalist was to liberate the tired fingers of the hardworking seamstress and bring to an end the “sad song of the needle.”2 House of Singer The House of Singer at 28 Nevsky Prospect, headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company in Russia, was located on prime real estate across from the majestic neoclassical Kazan Cathedral. The two buildings, including their cupolas , offered a striking juxtaposition of neoclassical and modern architecture, but some considered the proximity of the Singer building to the cathedral unseemly . Its eclectic and art nouveau architecture became the source of controversy among the city’s preservationists, even though Nicholas II approved the project on May 16, 1902. The well-known architect Pavel Syuzor designed the House of Singer, using plate glass extensively, especially in the cupola, globe, and internal atriums. Built between 1902 and 1904, after the demolition of the eighteenth-century house that stood on the site, it became the country’s first modern office building. As the city’s main architectural emblem of modernity at the beginning of the twentieth century, it had steel girders, completely fireproof floors and ceilings, two interior downspouts, and a unique heating system that kept the roof gutters clear of ice and snow during the winter—all new features in Petersburg construction.3 Singer purchased the real estate from its original owner for more than one million rubles, and legend has it that the company intended to build the first high-rise in Petersburg, approximately at the time when it was planning to build its forty-story office tower in New York, which become New York’s tallest building . The company, however, was not familiar with Petersburg regulations limiting the height of buildings (except churches) to 23.5 meters, the height of the Winter Palace and residence of the tsar.4 The way the company was able to get around the restrictions was by placing a 2.8-meter translucent cupola topped by a large glass globe over the House of Singer’s seven stories (six plus mansard floor), making it the tallest building on Nevsky Prospect, which it is still today. “The huge house of Singer on Nevsky across from the Kazan Cathedral has almost taken off its scaffolding,” wrote Sergey R. Mintslov in his diary on November 8, 1903. “It is made of iron and stone. The builders have overdone the gold to let us know that they have money, but that’s fine. All in all, Petersburg is smartening up. It’s time to exchange our gloomy boxes called houses for something more comfortable and beautiful!”5 The construction of the building— lavish outside and inside—cost 1.5 million rubles. The House of Singer opened its doors on December 12, 1904, with a special art exhibit which featured its 28 Nevsky Prospect 239 machine embroideries, including the Russian empire’s national costumes.6 The exhibit was organized by the Red Cross as a charitable event the proceeds of which would go to the sick and wounded soldiers in the Far East. The purpose of the building was not only to house the Singer offices, showrooms , storage areas, and actual workspaces for seamstresses but also to lease office space to high-end...