The “Directorate” estate is one of the largest developments of the Second Republic, forming part of the modernist New Town district.
In the years 1928-1939, a project for a housing estate was implemented, which was to be a key element of the plan to relocate the Regional Directorate of State Railways from Radom to Chelm. The plan adopted by the Ministry of Communications envisaged, among other things, the erection of 156 residential buildings, including compact apartments and one- and two-family houses, a bathhouse, an infirmary and a magnificent administrative building for the directorate. Unfortunately, circumstances proved not to be conducive to the project. First, the construction was harmed by the cold winter, which damaged the various structures, and then came the economic crisis. Work on the investment had to be halted, and its resumption was interrupted by the outbreak of war.
The settlement has survived to the present day in very good condition, not least due to the recognition of the urban complex as a monument. It encompasses 52 hectares of railroad colony, including three residential colonies with a total area of about 30.4 hectares. The colony named “Main Directorate” is a compact development on the main axis of the composition of the New Town district, between Chalk Hill and Cathedral Hill. The “Lower Directorate” colony, together with the Directorate Building, is a compact development on Independence Square. The third colony is a complex of 30 detached houses, in the range of Stephenson, Slowackiego and 1st Cavalry Regiment streets. When visiting the settlements, it is worth noting the magnificently preserved Directorate Building, a monumental building with clear features of early modernism, austere and majestic. Currently, the building houses, among others, the Chelm District Office.
