Description of the attraction
In 1906, at the intersection of Vvedenskaya (now E. F. Grigorieva) and Gimnazicheskaya (now Nekrasova) streets, a two-story mansion, unusual for Saratov, was built, which still excites the imagination of the townspeople. The house was built according to the individual order of a respected person in the city - attorney at law Alexander Ivanovich Skvortsov, a native of a wealthy merchant family, who graduated from the law faculty of Moscow University and was reputed to be a successful lawyer. In 1902, having favorably married the daughter of a wealthy merchant Bestuzhev, Skvortsov was elected a vowel of the City Duma and joined the left wing (liberals). In addition to political and legal achievements, Alexander Ivanovich was known as a great esthete and a well-rounded person, he was a member of the directorate of a music school, and later a conservatory.
Having built the mansion, the Skvortsov couple with two sons occupied the second floor, and the first was rented out to wealthy citizens. The most high-ranking persons of Saratov were regular guests of the hospitable and hospitable owners of the house: Slavin, Arapov, Exner and then a young lawyer, the future Prime Minister of the Provisional Government - A. F. Kerensky.
Near the house, like all wealthy people of that time, there was a spacious stable with thoroughbred horses. The pride and favorite of the owner of the mansion was the English mare Josephine, whose gallop on Moskovskaya Street, according to eyewitnesses, with a rider in the person of Alexander Ivanovich, delighted all observers.
The beautiful mansion complemented Skvortsov's extraordinary personality: an elegantly decorated facade on light tiles with large windows and a skillfully carved massive front door made of oak and a mysteriously lowered gaze of the sphinx's head at the end of the house, reminiscent of the wife of the former owner of the house, Vera Petrovna Bestuzheva.
After the revolution, the mansion and the stable were transferred to the district housing department, and by the 1990s, the building without repair and restoration had become an emergency. Having found a new owner in the person of a construction company, the mansion found a new life after restoration work. Now the building is a historical landmark of Saratov and an architectural monument.
