HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

1905-1910

State index: 1.6.203.8

Architect Vasily Mirzoyan

The building is located at the intersection of Hanrapetutyan Street, Melik-Adamyan Street, and Tigran Mets Avenue, at 37 Hanrapetutyan Street, opposite the profitable houses of Mikhail von der Nonne.

Since 1905, Count Vladimir Tiesenhausen, the governor of Yerevan (1896-1916), lived and worked in this house with his family. The street received the name Gubernskaya (Provincial) from the governor’s office and the nearby building of the provincial administration (during the First Republic of Armenia it was renamed Hanrapetutyan Street, in the first Soviet years - Lenin Street, then - Alaverdyan Street, and during the Third Republic again - Hanrapetutyan Street).

From 1918 to 1920, the government of the First Republic of Armenia operated in the building. All four prime ministers of that government worked here: Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Alexander Khatisyan, Hamazasp Ohanjanyan, and Simon Vratsyan, as well as Foreign Minister Sirakan Tigranyan, Interior Minister Aram Manukyan, and others.

After the end of the Battle of Sardarapat (May 1918), it was from the semicircular balcony on the second floor of this building that Aram Manukyan, the founder of the first republic, declared Armenia’s independence and raised the Armenian tricolor.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Armenia, the building was occupied by the Revolutionary Committee of Armenia and the Council of People’s Commissars, led by Sargis Kasyan (first chairman of the Revolutionary Committee, 1920-1921) and Alexander Myasnikyan (after the reorganization of the Revolutionary Committee - chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars and Military Commissar of the Armenian SSR, 1921-1922).

From 1965 to 1998, the Committee for Cultural Relations with Armenians of the Diaspora of the Armenian SSR, the editorial office of its weekly “Voice of the Homeland”, and other state institutions operated here.

In 1987-1988, while maintaining the overall architectural style, a new wing was added to the building from the north on Melik-Adamyan Street, aimed at recreating the urban environment characteristic of Old Yerevan in the triangle of Alaverdyan and Melik-Adamyan streets.

The governor’s house is two-storied with a basement. The length of the main facade on Republic Street is 41.6 m, the width of the left wing is 16.8 m, and the right wing is 13.3 m. The plan is determined by the terrain, which is why the southeastern and western walls together form an acute angle (rounded in the plan), and the six western rooms are trapezoidal.

The first floor was allocated for the office of the governor of Yerevan. In the middle part of the building, along its transverse axis, are the vestibule and staircase (3 m and 5 m wide). In the volumetric-spatial composition, the southeastern and western facades are artistically processed. The transition is symmetrical, semicircular, with a metal, openwork, console balcony. All openings are rectangular. Stones of different colors are used in the masonry: on the main black background of the walls, pink tuff highlights the divisions, protrusions and belts, decorative elements (framing of openings, modillions, cornice teeth, etc.). The walls are decorated with stucco ornaments, wall stoves are lined with colored mosaics in the form of rosettes and flowers. The load-bearing walls are made of stone on lime mortar (76-96 cm thick). The facades facing the street are faced with tuff. A clay-straw mixture was used for the interior walls. The ceilings are wooden, flat, and the basement vaults are stone.

By the decision of the RA Government No. 654 of October 17, 2000, at the suggestion of the Armenian Assembly of America, the building was exchanged for a structure that was a continuation of the third Government building, which was the property of the assembly.

In 2006-2010, the interior volumes of the building were completely demolished and reconstructed, and attic floors were added. Only the exterior walls (exterior appearance) were preserved.

On July 12, 2010, the building was reopened as a permanent representation of the offices of the Hrair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation and the Armenian Assembly of America. The building is also a business center housing various organizations (“Tashir Pizza”, “Artsakhbank”, and others).

“Scientific Research Centre of Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO

Yerevan Municipality