Most of them are used as public buildings: the Vorotynets settlement library, the newspaper editorial office, the House of Children's Creativity, and the police department. 9 buildings are cultural heritage sites of municipal significance, possessing historical, cultural, and scholarly value.
The Formation of Vorotynets's Layout of Vorotynets (disambiguation)
The formation of Vorotynets's present-day layout of Vorotynets, it appears, began at the time of its founding. On a plan of the village drawn up at the end of the 18th century, the main streets are already visible: Bolshaya (now M. Gorky Street), divided into Birzha, Verkhny (Upper) End, and Nizhny (Lower) End, Kokuska (Demyan Bedny Street), Sodomnaya (St. Zubov Street), Sloboda (Svobody Street), Tupichikha (Proletarskaya Street), and Mokrusha (Kholodnaya Street).
The plan also clearly shows that a significant part of the village is occupied by orchards, laid out regularly into rectangles without regard for the ravine terrain.
The village then belonged to Count N. N. Golovin, whose entire life passed in continuous amusements and pleasures. As a spendthrift the count gained fame during his lifetime, and his estate gained all-Russian "fame" after the count's death. His relatives even refused to accept the inheritance so as not to have to pay off his debts. In order to satisfy the creditors, a grand government lottery was announced, in which the prizes would be villages of the Golovins' vast estate.
In 1810 a great fire occurred in Vorotynets: peasant houses, manor outbuildings, and the wooden church in honor of the Icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands burned down.
Rebuilt after the disaster, the village retained the main features of its layout: most streets oriented north-south, connected to one another by lanes. The only street oriented from west to east is Sloboda.
The 1867 plan of Vorotynets shows the changes that took place during the 19th century.
Vorotynets was a large village, the center of a volost (rural district). In 1859 the population numbered 795 men and 1063 women; by 1887 it had grown to 1382 men and 1665 women.
The orchards disappeared, and two ponds appeared in their place, which survive to this day.
After the abolition of serfdom, Vorotynets became a major center of the grain trade. Over the 10 years from 1860 to 1870, grain purchases in Vorotynets grew from 780,000 poods to 1,320,000 poods. All the operations involved in handling grain (sifting, packing into sacks, hauling to the landing, milling of rye, loading onto barges) brought enormous income to the residents of Vorotynets. This is why they had long been considered the wealthiest peasants in the uyezd. "Vorotynets feeds everyone" was a saying in use.
Houses of Merchants and Wealthy Peasants
The brick and part-brick houses of Vorotynets's wealthy peasants and merchants still stand on the streets of Vorotynets today. Built in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, they still faithfully serve people. The Yalovitsyn brothers — Mikhail Semyonovich, Alexei, and Ivan — the Sharonov brothers, Stepan and Fyodor, Kireev (Makarov) I.P., the Kiselnikov brothers, Zubov A.M., Kobelev I.N., Efimov I.E., and others left behind buildings that adorn the central part of M. Gorky Street, the former Birzha.
The leading grain merchant Ryabov I.M. built his mansion at the start of Sloboda, closer to the market. The house, though huge on the outside, looks like an elegant jewel box thanks to its carved brick window surrounds with kokoshnik-shaped tops. And its rooms are cool even in thirty-degree heat, and breathing in them is easy: a carefully thought-out supply ventilation system provides constant circulation of fresh air. The ceiling height on the second floor is about three meters, and even a light whisper carries through the halls of the library now housed there with a cheerful echo. Next door, a house was built for the younger brother.
Ryabov was a farsighted man. After the revolution he did not argue with the new authorities, but left his house to them. It housed the Council of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. For himself he built a small house and lived in it until his death. The upper, wooden, part of the younger brother's house was eventually dismantled, rebuilt in brick, and joined to the large house. The added section is clearly visible in the photograph: it is distinguished by the absence of decorative trim around the windows.
The house of merchant Simonov M.V. today houses the district military commissariat. It offers us an example of a house very characteristic of the Vorotynets region — a Poludomok ("half-house"), which together with a small house standing nearby forms what is called a "nesting settlement".
The house of the former owner of the Vorotynets market, P.V. Zubov, draws attention with the beauty of its finish. A great master of joinery, Zubov decorated his house with beautiful window surrounds and filled it with turned furniture made by his own hands. After the revolution he moved to the Vasilyevsky paper mill near Kazan, built a house there, and lived in it to the end of his life.
On the "sunny" side of Sloboda stand two-story houses on cellars belonging to the wealthy peasants Khashkin, Plaksin, Sofyin, Vinokurov, Svinenkov, and Popov families.
The key houses on Demyan Bedny Street (formerly Kokuska) are the dwellings of the Kholin, Blokhin, Novozhenin, Shiryaev, and Afanasyev-Kanaev families (now the House of Children's Creativity).
St. Zubov Street (formerly Sodomnaya) runs from the church southward and was originally single-sided, facing the "Barskie Hills" — the site of the former Golovin estate. At the beginning of the 20th century the row of houses facing west also began to be built up. Here settled Ilyin I.V., a master felt-boot maker who had come to Vorotynets from Kostroma during the years of revolutionary upheaval. Together with his sons he set up the production and sale of felt boots (valenki). He grew wealthy and built a house next door for his son.
On the other side of the street stand the poludomki (half-houses) of Dolgov M.I. and Bolshakov S.V.