2008-09(Sept)-15 Peter’s First Home

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I had hoped to send wonderful pictures of Peter the Great's first home in St. Petersburg. It is a 'modest' home - two stories, almost Georgian (US) looking from the outside. Alas no pictures were allowed. Few comments: It was about the size of the houses in Williamsburg, Va. It had beautiful original inlaid wood floors. We had to wear lovely booties to protect them. Most of the other palaces in this part of Russia are not original as they were badly damaged in the wars, so to see such an old building completely in tact was a treat. The kitchen was in the middle of the first floor and was completely tiled with hand-painted Dutch blue and white tiles (fireproof, I assume). In the US, kitchens of the 1700s were usually at the end of the house or a separate building because of the possibility of fire. The czar had his own potty throne, also inside. No mention was made as to how/who had to empty it. I cannot imagine it was just left alone, but you never know. I assume everyone else used an outhouse. Peter's rooms were downstairs, Catherine's were upstairs, including a nursery. They were decorated similarly to the finest US homes of the time - but the woodwork was more ornate than I remember seeing anyplace. In Peter's study there was a wall-sized set of three dials - wind indicators that looked like large instruments on a car or airplane. There were a barometer, wind speed indicator, and wind direction indicator - all were attached to a wind vane on the roof of the house. This home was on the Neva River, next to a canal. Peter was interested in navigation - in fact he worked in a shipyard as a young man, so water navigation was interesting to him. He made St. Pete a very important seaport of the time. It still is - and some of the most important vessels are the cruise ships that dock here all summer.

After our tour, we were walking home (about a mile but we walk alot so it really doesn't seem far), and decided to stop for a drink at a crazy looking bar we had noticed several times in the past. However when we got there, the sidewalk was closed as they were removing downspouts from the building. Sam, Justus, and Joe - more OSHA violations! Four stories, and ropes/plywood seats - as the big pipes were cut and dropped, another bloke ran after them to keep them off the street.

You may (or may not!) find it interesting to hear how the old buildings were constructed. Peter wanted St. Petersburg to be as beautiful as the other large cities of Europe. I do not know how buildings were constructed in Paris (since I have not been any other places in Europe) but I have been told that the Russians used a method to imitate that construction. The exterior walls were made of common brick and mortar - usually 2- 3 feet thick. You might assume the buildings have large stones or bricks as the facade, but they don't. A decorative top coat of mortar (I guess) was applied. Then the buildings were painted, some to look like stone, but as time went on, the colors chosen were often the favorites of the czarinas. So Catherine's Palace in Pushkin is robin's egg blue, the Engineers Palace is a peachy-pink, the Hermitage (museum) is a pale green, the Russian Museum is yellow. Because of the two world wars and neglect during Soviet times, the buildings deteriorated - many badly. The current St. Pete governor has made it a priority to get as many buildings refurbished as possible. Every block has one or more covered with green netting in the summer as workers scrape, re-mortar, sand and paint the exteriors. You may also notice that many buildings have a different material - truly a brick or stone at the bottom a couple of feet high. That is because the weather here is messy, especially in the winter; now they salt the sidewalks to make them safer in freezing weather. So the rain, snow and salt especially deteriorate the bottoms of the buildings. I have seen a couple of buildings with granite bottoms - these have been added in the past few years.

We saw a new building under construction (very rare as most buildings are renovated, not replaced). Notice the concrete construction. John thinks a brick face will be added, then probably the same 'stucco' finish since this construction allows for a thinner wall than all brick (probably quicker and cheaper too). The second picture you see of a building with netting is actually our building - notice the pinkish-purple on the right side. When we got here from Alabama, the netting was gone and we were surprised to see this color - the inside courtyard of the building is a beige color. John is at the front door of the building in the next picture - you can see the building repairs have been sanded and they need to paint the sidewalk level next.
Finally, it has gotten a little cold here - 2 this morning (35 F). The government provides steam heat for the city but it has not been officially turned on. However, since they are replacing the steam line on our street, we think they have been testing it: our apartment has been rather comfortable in shirt sleeves. We have been told to be prepared to open our windows in the winter because once the steam heat is turned on, the buildings get very warm. The last picture shows the sand that covers the new steam line which has been installed this summer on our street. It looks like pavers will be installed next. Hopefully we will have a pleasant pedestrian walkway to look at next summer when the grass grows back.

I have a new computer - hopefully there will be no problems with the pictures in the next email. And once again, if you are tired of my ramblings, let me know and I will remove you from the distribution. The list seems to be growing - I hope you continue to find it interesting. If you have any questions you would like me to address, let me know and I'll look into it. Several of you have asked about the political climate. That is one thing I do not know about since I don't understand Russian - I check CNN every couple of days to get my news!
Take care, Terri