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House of Lawyer R. Dulskis and the Residence of the US Envoy

Kaunas, Lithuania
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By Žilvinas Rikšelis, 2020. Source: https://modernizmasateiciai.lt/teisininko-r-dulskio-namas-vila-ir-jav-pasiuntinio-rezidencija/

When Lithuania declared independence, the state administration apparatus began to be created. The owner of this house, Romualdas Dulskis, was one of the first to take the helm of the Internal Affairs system. He became head of the Citizen Protection Department of the nascent Ministry of the Interior, and later Director of the General Affairs Department. He also served on the City Council, and in 1921, he ran for the office of Mayor of Kaunas. Later he worked in banks and was one of the founders of the joint-stock company Palemonas. Fleeing the second Soviet occupation, Dulskis fled to the West in 1944, leaving behind a luxurious family home in Kaunas.

When he decided to build his own residential house, R. Dulskis chose a promising designer from the 1940s as the author of his project. S. Kudokas, an architect from Kaunas. The house was built in 1937. The facade of the house on the street side is austere but dynamic and varied: the passer-by is greeted by large expanses of blind walls, which are accentuated by horizontal bands. However, in the courtyard, the house hides a surprise: a semi-circular glazed veranda with an open balcony at the top and a magnificent staircase leading down from it, which leads directly into the garden.

It is probably not for nothing that this house caught the eye of the US envoy. According to the plaque on the house, it was the headquarters of the US Embassy from 1938 to 1940. However, the diplomatic mission was located and operated until 1940 on V. Putvinskis Street, while Owen I. C. Norem, US Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, resided here. The building is currently owned by the Boy Scouts.

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