Merchant House Near Bazar-i Kalan Razed for Hotel

TALAS — A two-storey brick merchant house built in 1910 on a lane near Bazar-i Kalan was demolished over the weekend to clear the site for a hotel, despite appeals by architects and residents of the market quarter.

The house, with carved wooden window frames and an iron-roofed porch in the style of the Russian colonial town east of the citadel, stood just outside the zone protected by the city’s 1997 Historic Districts Ordinance, which covers the citadel quarter only. Buildings of the Russian and Soviet periods outside it have little protection.

Neighbors said the excavators arrived early on Saturday. “My grandfather bought tea from the family that built it,” said a coppersmith from the next lane. “Now it’s a pile of bricks and a fence with a picture of a glass tower on it.”

The city’s planning department said the developer held all required permits and that the project complied with the law. Architects who had asked the city council to extend protection to the market quarter said they would renew their request when the council reviews the ordinance.