Residential House of Jonas Lapėnas Change this

Description Change this

The benchmark for modern and luxurious construction was over ten thousand new buildings built during the twenty years of inter-war independence. Modern multi-storey residential houses – a sign of prosperity in the capital – started to germinate in the center of Kaunas. These new houses had to meet new hygiene and construction requirements – more light in the rooms, no houses were allowed, where the maid’s rooms are dark and without windows, and all four-storey and larger buildings should offer elevator. House of J. Lapėnas not only met all these requirements, he quickly became a luxury benchmark and was named one of Kaunas "skyscrapers".

The house belonged to the director of "Maistas" – the largest food processing company, which had a monopoly on export of meat products in the country – Jonas Lapėnas. Being a member of an active political movement, and since 1929, as its chairman, J. Lapėnas has contributed to the establishment of the Lithuanian Nationalist Fund for providing loans and scholarships to gifted but poor young people. The energetic economist was also the chairman of the management of "Lietuvos muilas" and "Lietūkis" companies. Among the areas of interest of the entrepreneur were the press and culture – he was one of the founders of the publishing company "Pažanga" and theater "Vilkolakis". The house was distinguished by luxury, created by quality finishing materials and quality of work. There were even two elevators in the house, but only one of them still remains in our day. From 1938 to 1939 Polish Embassy rented the apartments in the second floor.

Comments