Villa of Anna and Otto Guth
1932–1933

Large, yet not ostentatious, the Functionalist villa no. 9 on U Svépomoci Street owes its existence to the doctor Otto Guth and his wife Anna, who features as the client in the period planning documentation. The author of the building was probably the builder Karel Hájek, whose company realised the construction in the years 1932–1933. Karel Hájek is associated with the post-war fate of the villa as well – he carried out reconstructions to the roof and the terrace for the new owner of the house, who after 1947 was the Doctor of Law Hugo Tetzeli.

From the outset, the villa was conceived as a representative family house, reflecting the high social status of the client. There was, therefore, besides the necessary facilities (a boiler house with a coke cellar, laundry room with drying room, storage space for food and coal) a relatively generous caretaker's apartment in the basement, consisting of a room, kitchen with pantry, bathroom and toilet. The social part of the house, located on the mezzanine floor, was entered by an external staircase and the entrance was covered by a simple awning. The entrance was followed by a hallway with cloakroom and toilet, leading further into a hall with stairs to the first floor. The central rooms of the ground floor were the dining room, gentlemen’s room and salon, only separated from the dining room by two columns. The salon was connected to the garden by another external stairway. The ground floor also housed operating rooms – a scullery, separated from the dining room by a serving window – and a kitchen with a closet and pantry that were accessed via a separate hallway.

Private rooms were located upstairs: bedrooms; a shared bathroom combined with a sauna; Dr. Guth’s study; and the maid’s room. In the yard, the villa was complemented by a separate garage building and a concrete area with a drain, marked as a car wash in the planning documentation.

The generous design of the building did not escape the attention of authorities after the year 1948; probably due to its vastness, the villa was adapted for the purposes of a kindergarten in 1953. Today, the house belongs to the descendants of Hugo Tetzeli and is used as an office building.

LR

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