Postal Descent (formerly Uspensky, Kooperativny) — descends from Ilyinskaya Street to Rozhdestvenskaya.
History
The descent was laid along the bottom of one of the deep, steep-sided gullies that divided The Dyatlov Mountains into separate plateaus. Its historical name — Uspensky — came from the Uspensky (Dormition) Church located nearby; the ravine through which it runs was also called Uspensky by Khramtsov. Because of the steepness of the slope, only foot paths ran along the ravine floor in earlier times.
The city plans of Nizhny Novgorod from 1799 and 1804 envisaged cutting into the ravine's slope and laying a road descent along its floor. However, landslides that began during the earthworks prevented the plans from being carried out. The idea of constructing a descent here was revisited in 1823–1824 by A. A. Betancourt and V. I. Heste. Building on their proposals, architect I. Ye. Yefimov suggested framing the exit of the Uspensky Descent onto Rozhdestvenskaya as a triumphal arch with columned porticoes, but the project was rejected as too costly. When the new city development plan of 1839 was drawn up, the Uspensky Descent became the central axis of an entire complex of projected structures: an Upper Embankment with an arched stone bridge across the ravine and descents at each end was planned along the crest of Ilyinskaya Hill. These projects were likewise never realized. The descent itself was constructed in the 1840s, paved with cobblestones, and partly built up.
Kashirin's House
The best-known structure on today's Postal Descent is house no. 21, "Kashirin House Museum," the home of writer Maxim Gorky's grandfather, which has been turned into a museum-apartment and is one of the most popular destinations for tourists. No documentary records of the construction of the house where young Alyosha Peshkov spent his childhood have survived, but history has preserved some details.
V. V. Kashirin, who had moved to Nizhny Novgorod from Balakhna, bought a Wooden Buildings of Nizhny Novgorod from the meshchane (townspeople) Mozharov in 1852, located on the slope leading from Ilyinskaya Street down to Rozhdestvenskaya. That same summer he petitioned the Nizhny Novgorod Construction Committee for permission to repair it. It turned out, however, that part of the estate might, under the 1839 plan, be taken "for the leveling of the Uspensky Descent," and so on 26 August 1852 the artisan Kashirin was permitted "to re-roof portions of the house, to re-lay floors inside, rebuild stoves, and repair window and door frames" only on condition that, should it become necessary, he demolish the house "without claiming any compensation from the treasury."
The repair work was carried out on the façade and under the supervision of architect N. I. Uzhumedsky-Gritsevich. When the Uspensky Descent was subsequently replanned, the house found itself inside a city block, so V. V. Kashirin brought the front garden fence up to the building line while leaving the house itself in its original position. The building has survived to this day in the form it took after the 1852 renovation, when alterations affected every part of the structure (the house itself having been built considerably earlier).
The estate included the usual outbuildings and a dye-works. In 1855–1857, V. V. Kashirin served as elected elder of the local dyers' guild; in 1861–1863 he was a deputy of the city duma; and in 1871, the year Alyosha Peshkov was living in the house, he ranked among the wealthiest residents of Nizhny Novgorod.