At the beginning of the 20th century the area of the intersection of Pochtovy Lane (now Ostrovsky Lane) and Bolshaya Sadovaya Street was occupied by factory buildings, including that of the merchant of the 1st Guild N. I. Churilin. In 1912, the city council decided to build a revenue house here. A competition was held, in which the first place was awarded to the design of I. E. Cherkessian (Cherkesov), a student of the Institute of Civil Engineers. The second and the third places were taken by the designs of the Kiev engineer I. G. Torov and the Rostov architect respectively. The Cherkessian design was approved with some changes. In the same year, construction began, and in 1914 the city's revenue house was opened.
