Berdyansk State Pedagogical University is located in a building constructed in 1872 by order of Tsar Alexander II. Until 1919, it housed the imperial male gymnasium. The main curriculum included Latin, Russian, French, and German languages, mathematics, physics, cosmography, philosophy, and law. Academic rowing competitions were also regularly held. The admission requirements were very high: in the first 25 years, only 257 out of 5415 students graduated from the gymnasium.

In 1920, communists organized paid courses in this building to train social education workers. The program included the study of the history of Ukraine, Ukrainian language and literature, school hygiene, manual labor, the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR, and lessons in atheism. Since 1926, as part of the indigenization policy, all instruction was conducted in the Ukrainian language.