In the period before the location, that is, before the town was founded, the plot located in the north-western corner of the present crossroads of Marszałkowska and Żurawia streets was in the area of the Mazowieckie Princes property. After the location of the town (circa 1300) the area was given to townspeople and it was in the borders of Kałęczyn-Chmielnik, later called as fields of the Old Town.

In the 15th and 16th century, in effect of princely, and later royal orders, some of the land was given to clergy and friars. In the end of the 17th century the subject plot became a possession of the Missionary Priests Congregation. On the north the area was bordered with a strip of land between the present Nowogrodzka Street and Aleje Jerozolimskie, and on the south with the line of the present Wspólna street.

In the second half of the 18th century Franciszek Bieliński, later the Grand Marshall of the Crown, had the lands around the Królewska street. In 1766, to join the lands, the "Bielińska principal street" was prolonged and in 1770 it was named Marszałkowska. A concurrent street was created, called Wielka (now Poznańska) and Mazowiecka, and the crossing streets were marked on borders splitting particular plots.

Since the Missionary Priests had a lot of property, in 1766 another street was created, which was supposed to reduce the depth of the plots. It ran from Nowy Świat to the Wielka street and in 1770 it was named Żurawia. However circa 1780 the street was partially plowed, because there were not enough buyers for its plots.

Till the middle of the 19th century the traffic at the Marszałkowska street concentrated in its northern section, between the Królewska and the Widok streets. In the years 1818-23 Aleje Jerozolimskie were designed and marked and they were composed of three roads, four de-watering channels and six rows of Italian poplars. Despite this, in the area of the crossroads with the Marszałkowska street no building was raised.

There was a small revival in the south section of the Marszałkowska street in June 1845 after the Warsaw - Vienna Railway Station was built and opened. Opposite the Station – Henryk Marconi – its designer, started to build his own villa, which was finished circa 1850.

In the second half of the 19 century the Marszałkowska street was arranged, its crossing streets were extended up to 17 metres and the Żurawia street was pitched. It was also a period of an intense construction movement in this area. In the years 1860-62 in the corner of the Marszałkowska and Hoża streets the Kronenberga Tobbaco Plant was built, and 2 years later, at the crossroads of Marszałkowska and Żurawia, a two-storey tenement with facades in the Italian classicist style was built, and in 1869 in the corner with the Wspólna street, a Mechanical Plant - Woroncowa-Weliaminowa was raised. Finally, after 1870 the streets: Krucza, Żurawia, Nowogrodzka and Marszałkowska until the Zbawiciela Square were filled up with frontage.

The end of the 19th century was the time of municipal and communication investments in the city centre. In 1882 in the Marszałkowska street a horsecar line was opened from the Railway Station to Rogatki Mokotowskie and in the years 1886-90 along the Marszałkowska street a sewage network and water supply network was built.

In the years of the 20th century the rank of the Marszałkowska street increased considerably and this is because the first electrical tram line operated in its whole length. Line No. 3 was open on 26 March 1908 and ran from the Krasiński square to Rogatki Mokotowskie. At the same time in 1902 the overground telephone network was replaced with an underground cable. A new telephone switchboard building was raised at the nearby Zielna street. The above investments changed the nature of this part of the Marszałkowska street from suburban and industrial into residential.

Circa 1910 in the north-eastern corner of Żurawia and Wielka streets (now Poznańska) an office building of the Warsaw general governor gendarmerie was built. However, during the period between the two world wars the construction actions in the area of the Marszałkowska street slowed down considerably. The reason was the fact that there were no free plots under construction and the financial conditions were extremely unfavorable in effect of World War I.

The development movement increased only in the years 1936-1939.

During the Warsaw Resurrection (1 August -2 October 1944) the region of the Marszałkowska street was within the reach of combats led by the troops of Rittmeister "Zaremba". On 24 August the troops of this group "Bełt" and "Iwo" conquered the quarter between the Żulińskiego street (now Żurawia), Poznańska, Nowogrodzka and Marszałkowska. The building of the Main Office of Telecommunication, on the other side of the Poznańska street, remained in the German hands.

On 5-10 October the Germans carried out the attack to maintain the control over Aleje Jerozolimskie as the artery securing the return of their troops from the eastern bank of the Vistula river. In effect the German troops unblocked the main building of the Telecommunication Office on the side of the Nowogrodzka street and transitionally conquered the eastern side of the Marszałkowska street in the section from Aleje Jerozolimskie to the Nowogodzka street.

After the capitulation of the Upraising the civilians were expelled from the town and grouped in a temporary camp in Pruszków. Some of them were sent to unfree labour to Germany, others were sent to kieleckie and krakowskie voivodships, where they were released from trains and left alone in unknown places. In October 1944 the Germans burnt the buildings, which remained standing after the fights.

On 17 January 1945 the First Polish Army occupied the town on the left river bank in the framework of the Warsaw Operation conducted by Soviet armies and the First Belarus Front.

The Office of Capital Reconstruction, which was formed in February 1945 engaged in the process of liquidation of the "relics of capitalism". The legal basis for the activity of the Office was established by a Decree of the Council of Ministers of 26 October 1945 on taking over plots in the area of the capital city of Warsaw.

The postulates were enforced and the remnants of facades of almost all buildings at the Marszałkowska street were demolished in 1946. Next the construction of the Residential District of the Marszałkowska street was started, which was connected with a demolition of remaining tenements to prepare plots for the building of the Constitution square. There were also plans to shift the western frontage of the Marszałkowska street to regain its final width of 60 m.

During the widening of the Marszałkowska street many houses were demolished. In 1954 in the northern frontage of the Żurawia streets, between Marszałkowska and Poznańska, three tenements were demolished and only the building of former offices of the tzarist gendarmerie, now the Śródmieście District Office.

In effect of changes carried out by the Capital Reconstruction Office, the western frontage of the Marszałkowska street was developed in the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century with banal, monotonous blocks of flats.

In the middle of the 60s, in the south-western corner of the Nowogrodzka and Marszałkowska streets the building of PKO and Dom Mody Polskiej was constructed with a store in the Marszałkowska street.

Till the end of 2007 the north-western corner of Żurawia and Marszałkowska remained undeveloped and its only form of management was an overground guarded parking.

Compiled by: Fryderyk Szymański, APA Kuryłowicz & Associates

The Marszałkowska street is the main artery of Warsaw, but its potential remains not used. The office and commercial building Wolf Marszałkowska given to use in April 2010 changed the view of the capital centre. The prestigious location in one of the most visibly exposed corners of the Marszałkowska street is an asset in locating renowned offices and exclusive stores. Elegant finishing of the building attracts the most demanding tenants and clients.