Bács-Kiskun megye múltjából 25. (Kecskemét, 2011)

SUMMARIES

Mrs Mária Péterné Fehér

SECRETS OF A BUILDING DIARY

(HISTORY OF THE KECSKEMÉT COLONY OF ARTISTS)

23rd October 1909 a decision was made by the Municipal Committee of Kecskemét Town about the establishment of a colony of artists. A detailed programme made by Béla Iványi Grünwald and Elek Falusi (managers of the artists who wanted to leave the Art School of Nagybánya) was accepted, as well. The prosperous economy of the town and the major’s (Elek Kada) open-minded city-development and cultural politics made the establishment of the colony of artists possible. It took more than half a year to make the art programme, to accept the operational plans, to make plans of the buildings (made by Béla Jánszky and Tibor Szivessy) and the budget final. The last word was said on 12th October 1910 on the general assembly about the building of a storeyed house as a studio, a one-level school of painting and last but not least about the building of six different cottages. The decision about the result of the applications for the building works was made on 20th September 1910 by the management of the town. The final building cost was 227 261 crowns and 10 “fillér”. The building and the keeping of the diary was started in the following days.

The study shows the building diary of the colony of artists from the first registration (22 September 1910) to the determining of the borderlines of the first built house (31 December 1911). The keeping the registers of the diary was started by a master building contractor of Kecskemét, János Gulyás. In the 95-page diary registers can be found for every day of the construction. In this diary, similarly to the other municipal town’s diaries, records can be found about the work types that had already been done, comments on the weather, the number of the workers and the foreman’s instructions given to the contractor. The author shows the temporal procedure of the building without mentioning the dry technological facts. She also emphasizes a couple of important events which made the building procedure and the diary more interesting and colourful (e. g. labourer strike, the earthquake on 8 July 1911).

Unfortunately, the diary remained unfinished. There is not any registration concerning the finishing of the building or the checking and last but not least concerning the necessary corrections. In spite of the above mentioned facts it can provide us with useful information about the work and the circumstances of a building process in the beginning of the 20th century and also about the companies and the people taking part in the construction.

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