Former Residence of Madame Ivanov

At No. 163 Yanjiang Avenue, in Wuhan's historic Jiangan District, stands a three-story brick-and-concrete structure. Built around 1910, this building was the office of the Shunfeng Yanghang (S.W. Livinoff & Co.), a property registered under the name of Mrs. S.W. Livinoff, wife of the prominent Russian tea merchant who had arrived in Hankou in 1861. Livinoff built an empire on compressed tea, and together with his wife, they owned vast tracts of land across the local Russian Concession. This building, standing adjacent to the former Sino-Russian Righteousness Bank (now the Soong Ching-ling Memorial Hall), represents the height of that merchant wealth.

The architecture blends South Asian colonial style with Italian Classical elements. A symmetrical facade divides the exterior into three distinct sections. The left and right wings rise two stories high, each pierced by three open archways that catch the humid river breeze. In the center, a three-story tower commands the street, featuring two archways on each floor. Visitors can trace the cool, smooth curves of the round arches and feel the deeply carved floral reliefs decorating the windows.

Human lives shaped these spaces. After the consulate closed and the property was nationalized in the mid-20th century, the building transitioned to various commercial uses. In more recent years, it has housed a coffee pub and a wedding photography salon, adapting to the changing rhythms of the city.

Today, the structure remains a preserved landmark of early 20th-century trade and commerce, holding the echoes of Russian tea merchants and modern citizens within its thick, silent walls.