Student House (today’s Václav Čtvrtek Library)

A glance at the Student House, erected in gardens owned by the former teacher training institute (today’s elementary school on Husova Street), plainly reveals the influence of the modernist concepts of architect Jan Kotěra, who is referenced not only by the characteristic plain brickwork, but also by the internal layout of the building. This two-storey building, with its striking avant-corps and two pylons, and the monumental gable, was conceived with regard to the sloping terrain, the neighbouring built-up area, and above all with respect to the purpose for which it was designed: as a facility for associations and the free-time activities of students in higher education, and after 1919 also those attending Jičín’s secondary schools. This social project was the joint endeavour of the Academic Readers’ Union of Jičín (Akademická čtenářská jednota jičínská), an association that had formed back in 1870, alongside the Society of Friends of Students (Společnost přátel studenstva), founded in 1923. Their efforts won support from the directors of numerous Jičín schools and representatives of the district, who made lavish contributions to the public budget. The official opening took place on 6 and 7 December 1924, and was accompanied by the “Jičín suite” (Jičínská suita) of the composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster, a long-standing friend to the town. 

Behind the impressive entrance hides a rather cramped hall, with a staircase leading up to the first floor. Above the left-hand part of the building, where a canteen was situated, is terrace formed by the building’s palpably absent mass, while in the building’s much more utilitarian ground-floor wing on the right is, in addition to several modest admin rooms, a library boasting a semi-circular so-called summer reading room opening onto the garden. Public access was granted through a special entrance not only to the library, but also to the cultural hall on the first floor. Here we also encountered study rooms. The attic was given over to a meeting space for the Scouts and the Academic Readers’ Union, while the semi-basement housed a kitchen, cellars, boiler-room, cloakroom, showers, and the caretaker’s apartment. Čeněk Musil not only designed the building’s architecture, he also designed its interior furnishings.

At the end of February 1948, the Student House became a secondary school halls of residence. Today the building hosts the Václav Čtvrtek Library.

(GA)