On 30 December 1916, in Budapest, King Carol the 4th of Austria and his Queen Zita were crowned King and Queen of Hungary. A delegation from Timișoara consisting of mayor József Geml, Sándor Joanovich and Dr. Rezső Menczer also took part in the ceremony. The house located at the corner of 16 Decemeber 1989 Boulevard and Alexandru Odobescu Street is connected to the name of the latter. Its history started two decades earlier.
On 26 August 1894, a construction permit was issued for the house at this address. Work on it was finished a year later. Erected in an Eclecticist historicist style, Dr. Rezső Menczer House stands out due to its Neo-Baroque decorations, frequently used by Karl Hart, the architect of the edifice. It is worth noting particularly the window surrounds with broken pediments and decorative Neo-Baroque elements (the architect’s leitmotif that can be found in most of the buildings designed by the architect at the end of the 10th century), as well as the richly decorated pilasters that flank the ground floor windows and entrance.
The construction consists of a semi-basement, a ground floor and a first floor. All three main facades are decorated in the same Neo-Baroque manner. The original door and window frames, as well as the furniture of the pharmacy at the ground floor of the building bring extra charm to the edifice, together with the window with sandblasted glass, which present the image of the god Asclepios seen from the side.
The next relevant episode in the history of the house took place two years after its completion, when Valentin Duha decided to move the Red Cross pharmacy from Wendörfer House into Dr. Rezső Menczer House, right across the street. The story of the pharmacy is also worth telling. Founded in 1885, it was the second pharmacy in Elisabetin neighbourhood, and it passed through the hands of several owners. But a separate article will be dedicated to the detailed story.
Approximately ten years after the construction of the house, in Timișoara’s Address Book from 1906, we encounter dr. Rezső Menczer as the owner of the building, with his residence on Hunyady Boulevard no. 30 (which means he lived in the wing of the house on Hunyady Boulevard, currently 16 December 1989 Boulevard). Four years later, in the Address Book from 1910, he appears again as the owner, but this time he seems to be living in the wing on Holló Street (currently Alexandru Odobescu Street).
Another episode that connects to Dr. Rezső Menczer House took place during the First World War. In 1914-1915, because of the war, the activity of the Institute For The Deaf And The Mute is suspended, as the building of the institute on Gheorghe Doja Street was turned by the Red Cross into a reserve hospital. In order to ensure the ongoing functioning of the school, the Town Hall rented from dr. Rezső Menczer spaces in the building he owned.
Dr. Rezső Menczer, a judge by profession, was one of the most active and important citizens of Timișoara at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. A virilist and constant member of juridic commissions, he also made himself noticed in the external politics of the city. Apart from taking part in the crowning ceremony of King Carol the 4th in 1916, he participated, on 28 April 1915, in the funeral ceremony of Barron Géza Fejérváry, a honoured citizen of Timișoara and member of Parliament, in Vienna, together with Barron Ede of West.
