In 1859, the house of Antal Melhardt stood in the northern neighborhood of the present bank building, on the site of which lawyer János Lehner built his house, where he had his law office from 1938. After the nationalization, it was used simultaneously as a police station and a pharmacy, and eventually became the headquarters of the Patriotic Popular Front.
In the middle of the 19th century, the houses of Henrik Hoffmann and Mihály Csenterics stood to the north of it, the latter built an inn on the plot, which was called “Pupos inn” from 1897. In 1939, the houses of tinsmith Jenő Wallentin and joiner István Horváth were built on its site.
To the north of today’s bank building, on the site of the five houses, the headquarters of the Hungarian Post Office in Marcali was built in 1990, and it still operates there today. To the north of these plots, the buildings of the Széchényi estate, five farm buildings and a dwelling house were located. All of them were painted red with white framing, which is why, for example, the building parallel to the street was called the “Red Stable”. (It was one of the sites of executions by White Guards in 1919.) The bailiff of the estate, later a cartwright, a blacksmith and a chief-steward lived in the dwelling house. This one and the long stable parallel to the street were demolished in 1945. The apartment building that provided service residence for military officers was built here.
1.| View of the west side of Rákóczi Street: Party Headquarters, Police Station, residential buildings (Photograph: Béla Jávori, 1974)
2.| Plan of the house of joiner István Horváth. This building was the fifth house north of today’s Cooperative Savings Bank (Drawing by Gergely Csomós, 1939)
3.| After the nationalization, the residence and office of lawyer János Lehner became the headquarters of the Marcali Police (Picture postcard detail, 1958)
4.| The Post Office building in Marcali in 2022 (Photograph: József Ilácsa)
5.| The present Post Office building was built on the site of the houses behind the marching pioneers between 1987 and 1990 (Photograph, 1970s)
