Shadows of a Forgotten World

An intersting architectural/infrastructural element of the old buildings in Lviv is the vault window with a metal shutter. Even these seemingly unimportant, mundane covers were finished off with an artistic and decorative touch - a unique cutout, which I assume served the purpose of providing some light and ventilation into the basement vaults.  The windows would open by key from the outside, and likely were also used as chutes to bring goods or coal directly into the basements from the streets. As these are generally found on the front facade of the buildings, many have been openings to the vaults of storefronts - and so storage of goods was very important.  Now many of these shutters have been painted over and left unused for decades. The key holes have been painted shut and the keys long gone, while the vaults themselves may have been left abandoned, undisturbed... Each one has a different design - and there are hundreds of these around Lviv.  My favorit...

In downtown Winnetka, I found a well-preserved coal chute – the building and chute date to the early 20th century, probably between 1900 and 1930. This is an excerpt I found about the chutes manufactured by the Majestic Company: “The Majestic Coal Chutes are made of carefully selected materials. In form they are fitted for the unloading of coal. Fuel can be thrown into the building through these chutes without any damage resulting to the building. When the door of the Majestic Chute is opened it affords an ideal opening for the admittance of fuel into a building. These chutes can be unlocked from the inside. They are locked automatically with the Majestic Gravity Latch,” from the journal The American Artisan and Hardware Record : 1920, Volume 79. The company was founded in 1907 in Huntington, Indiana, and in 1957 it started to phase out coal chutes, as other sources of energy were becoming more common.