The history of the Jabłkowski brothers’ family business can be summed up in a single saying: ‘from shoe-shiner to millionaire’. They set up their business in Vilnius after the First World War.

The Jabłkowski brothers’ family
The history of the famous Jabłkowski Brothers Department Store in Warsaw can be summed up by the saying ‘from shoe-shiner to millionaire’. In 1884, Józef Jabłkowski, a Warsaw entrepreneur and philanthropist, founded an informal family partnership called ‘Spójnia’ with his children, along with a tiny haberdashery shop in a basement on Widok Street. Four years later, the limited partnership Bracia Jabłkowscy was established. In the years that followed, the company moved into increasingly larger premises and expanded its product range. Finally, in 1900, it rented a multi-storey tenement house at 23 Bracka Street in Warsaw. Fourteen years later, a magnificent, five-storey department store, designed by the renowned Warsaw architectural duo Karol Jankowski and Franciszek Lilpop, was erected on the neighbouring plot. The firm was transformed into a public limited company, and the building gained fame as the country’s largest department store, becoming a symbol of interwar commerce.

The Jabłkowski Brothers’ Vilnius Department and Industrial Store – architecture
Shortly after the end of the First World War, the Jabłkowski brothers opened a branch in Vilnius: in 1919, the joint-stock company Vilnius Jabłkowski Brothers Commercial and Industrial Centre was established. The share capital of the Vilnius department store was almost entirely owned by the Warsaw company. A multi-storey building on Mickiewicz Street (now Gediminas Avenue) on the corner of Wileńska Street, the construction of which had begun even before the First World War, was acquired for the department store. It was originally intended to house a shop run by the brothers Adam and Władysław Zawadzki.

A major advantage of the building (apart from its location on the city’s most prestigious street) was its orientation, which meant that over a dozen shop windows faced onto three streets. The building was in a shell condition, so it was necessary to install the utilities, flooring, lifts and central heating, as well as to fit out the interiors, furnish them and stock them with goods.

Installation and finishing works began in 1921. They progressed rather slowly, as it was difficult to source suitable materials locally and to engage contractors, whilst funding was secured from Warsaw. In 1923, the work was completed.

The monumental, cuboid structure with slightly rounded corners served as an architectural landmark in this section of Mickiewicza Street. The structural layout, designed by the architect Kazimierz Krzyżanowski, was based on a reinforced concrete skeleton structure with a multi-storey open hall. This was a typical solution for large department stores of that period.

The building’s architectural design was the work of designers from the Warsaw headquarters, Jankowski and Lilpop. It was rooted in the tradition of modernised classicism: the architects employed balanced, simple forms with a grand rhythmic pattern of pilaster strips, supported by an antique-style, arcaded ground-floor plinth (large display windows were fitted within the arcades). In this section of the façade, the pilaster strips were replaced by four prominent pilasters, creating a kind of recessed portico.

The Jabłkowski Brothers – product range
In early 1924, the ground floor opened with a shop selling men’s underwear and accessories, hats and made-to-measure clothing, as well as porcelain, glassware and cutlery. A small corner was occupied by a sweet kiosk. On the first floor, one could buy woollens, cottons and silks. Soon afterwards, the second floor housed stalls selling carpets, upholstery fabrics, bedspreads, kilims and furniture, and a tailor’s workshop was opened. The third floor housed a textile wholesaler, whilst the fourth – and top – floor was home to the offices and administration.

The years of the Great Depression took a heavy toll on the Vilnius department store. For a time, the shop remained under compulsory administration; it then returned to normal operation, but only in the basement and on the ground floor. Neither the company’s financial resources nor the needs of the Vilnius market allowed for more extensive operations. The first floor was let to the private Bank of the Union of Commercial Companies, whilst the remaining floors were occupied by the Institute of Commerce and Economics, which established a school there.

The Jabłkowski Brothers – the interwar years and beyond
Better times arrived in the 1930s, when Edward Kuligowski, previously the head of textile and ready-to-wear purchasing at the Warsaw head office, was seconded to Vilnius to take over as manager of the department store. The capital’s methods of trade and marketing, as applied by Kuligowski, enabled the store to regain its former prestige relatively quickly. In 1937, the Bank of the Union of Profit-Making Companies moved into its own building, and the department store took over the first floor. By the end of the interwar period, the range of goods had been significantly expanded, and as a result, it was only slightly inferior to that of the head office.

In 1939, the Vilnius department store employed 120 staff. Their welfare was a matter of particular concern to the management. The branch had a library, subsidised annually with 3,000 zlotys; skiing and tennis equipment was funded for staff who played sport, and subscriptions to tennis courts, membership fees for the rowing club and a coach for the skiers were paid for.

Following the Soviet invasion at the end of September 1939, the shop was confiscated and its goods were sent to the Soviet Union. In the post-war period, its commercial function was restored.