The plaque at the current building of the city sanitary-epidemic station tells only about the State Bank at the end of the XIX century, which was housed in this building. But the house has a bigger history.
This, sometimes inconspicuous, house of the 1980s, which is adjacent to the city's main square, is associated with the name of a city councilman, the provost Isaac Markels. He owned one of the largest pharmacies in the city. He came from a poor Jewish family, but his father won a good amount of money on a government loan. Because of this, Isaac joined the medical faculty in Kiev. Upon returning to Chernihiv, the man started a pharmacy business and became one of the wealthiest locals in the city.
In the future, the evil fame was confirmed about this building. In 1918, the house belonged to the headquarters of the Zamoskvoritsky Red Guards Squad, which set up authority of Bolsheviks in Chernihiv.
For several years, the Provincial Emergency Commission, which was a fore-runner of the NKVD, has been entered these walls. In the basements, which were huge, the prison and the interrogation rooms were located.