The present building was completed in 1912 and incorporates the foundation and some of the structure of two separate 18th century buildings. In the 18th century the property owners were two brothers, Semen Bernikov and Sergei Bernikov, both wealthy merchants. In the early 19th century one T. Roby, a British subject, ran a restaurant or pub in this building. Around the 1850s Bernikov's heirs sold one building to Shchepetilova, an army captain's widow, and the second structure to some Nochbeck, a government official. New owners in turn later sold the structure to another pair of merchant brothers, Nikolai and Karl Korpus who remained landlords until they sold both properties to Wawelberg interests in the early 20th century. From the 1870s until 1910 the building housed a variety of retail establishments and agencies: Captain Mahlein's footwear shop, Betling s governess employment bureau. Art studios occupied the mansard space, Ivanov's fruit emporium, Schaf's or Schaff's weapons and bicycle shop were also in the building before Wawelberg's takeover.
Architecture
The structure is a heavy Italianate palazzo built on gargantuan scale - it occupies a full city block. The exterior of the building is made of gray granite. Walls, cornices, columns are richly decorated with northern art nouveau inspired sculptures and bas-reliefs by two notable period sculptors Vasily Kozlov and Leopold Dietrich. After 1917 Kozlov and Dietrich became official Soviet sculptors of the social realism persuasion. Many contemporaries considered the building too American, too tasteless, and its appearance generated some heated public debate. At the corner of Malaia Morskaia and Nevsky is an entrance to the actual bank, now housing a collection of travel agencies, from 1960 until 1992 the building was Leningrad headquarters of Aeroflot, the space is airy, quiet with entrance passage leading through a hall to the cavernous bank lobby, complete with rows of columns and a spacious gallery above. Wawelberg Bank is one of the most remarkable turn of the 20th century bank buildings in St. Petersburg. The exterior of the building bears HW - Hyppolite Wawelberg - initials set in an arrangement resembling a coat of arms.
