3-005-662 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Ground floor of the main building. Changing room, 1898. From an album showing the buildings, grounds, and workshops of the Chita Vocational School. The future Tsar Nicholas II visited the city of Chita in 1891 and on that occasion a government decree was issued providing for establishment of the school. The school opened in 1894, moved into a new building in 1897, and was given the official name of the Emperor Nicholas II Vocational School in 1898. The album features photographs of the inside and outside of the school buildings as well as photographs of the students at work. It ends with a detailed history of the school, signed by the Governor-General of Chita Evgeny Iosifovich Matsievskii (1845-1910) and the director of the Chita Men's Gymnasium, Alexei Yelenev. Chita is located in southeastern Siberia, about 630 kilometers east of Irkutsk, where the Chita River flows into the Ingoda River. Its importance increased in the late 19th century when the Trans-Siberian Railroad was routed through the city.