House no. 73
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House No. 73In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the house belonged to the Ridt family and the famous Wilda family (in fact, one of the city districts bears its name because the Wildas leased a farm there). From 1690 to 1752 it was the property of the tailors guild, as indicated by the decoration of the façade.
Both no. 73 and no. 74 were pulled down in 1908 and replaced with the Industrialists Bank designed by Roger Sławski. The monumental façade of the bank was destroyed during World War II (a similar though far less impressive façade facing Sieroca Street remained intact) and the houses were divided again during the restoration work after the war.
The bank established in 1886 was one of the numerous economic institutions that supported Polish industrialists, craftsmen and merchants in their struggle against German element. The struggle was also fought in the field of culture, among others by the Polish Singing Society founded a year earlier. There is a bronze plaque outside the house commemorating the society whose traditions are kept alive by the Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society, the organiser of the world's oldest violin competition (the society's office is now located in Świętosławska Street).