Residential buildings for railway employees

In the second half of the 19th century, the railway network expanded rapidly In Europe but Memel (now Klaipėda) was left behind for some time. It was considered for a long time whether Memel needed a railway, and finally it was decided that it did. The first railway line connected Klaipėda with Tilze (now Sovietsk), the construction lasted for three years, and the opening took place on October 15, 1875. In 1881 the railway station building was  built, it is a yellow brick neoclassical two-storey structure with a flat span roof, the ground floor of which was the operations hall, and the second floor – apartments for the station staff. It cost 5,800,000 Prussian thalers to build the train line and create the necessary infrastructure, however, it was not paid for from the state budget, but investments were attracted from abroad. The trains started running in 1878. The first were freight trains, carrying   mostly wood and fish on the Klaipėda–Šilutė, Klaipėda–Šilutė–Pagėgiai routes.

The first representative square of the city was planned and paved in front of the railway station, and a tree-lined street led to it. Carriages used to pick up passengers on the square, later they were replaced by trams, cars and buses.

At the end of the 19th century, red brick residential buildings were built (12 and 14 Priestočio St. ) for railway workers. Two-story buildings with attics, of rectangular plan and symmetrical composition, like the station itself, are covered with flat roofs. The facades of the red brick buildings hidden from the street are divided horizontally by strips of black bricks and ornate cornices of profiled bricks. The buildings have large segmental arched windows. In the context of urban architecture, the buildings have a lasting architectural value and are part of the old railway station complex. Currently, both architectural objects are located in private territory, but one of them offers apartments for rent, so it is possible to view the building not only from the outside, but also from the inside.