An earlier palace stood on this site in 1747, but the present building dates from 1846 to 1848. Andreas Stackensneider designed it for Elena Pavlovna. The article describes the result as a Rococo revival, which looks back to the ornate taste of the eighteenth century.
After 1883, under Sergei Alexandrovich, the exterior took the red color it is known for. During the First World War, from 1916 to 1918, the palace served as the Anglo-Russian Hospital, which shows how flexible a large townhouse of this kind could be.
Since 1991 it has been a municipal cultural center. A fire damaged the roof in 2012. The building stands today as both a nineteenth-century showpiece and a public venue.
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