The tall tower of this church is still clearly visible from Chistye Prudy. It was designed as a dominant feature over the entire Myasnitskaya sloboda and continues to fulfill this role today. However, the original vision of the temple's creator was more ambitious and found its realization in another city, becoming a world-famous building.

The Church of Archangel Gabriel has been known since 1551 as a wooden parish church for the butchers who inhabited the local sloboda. Its second name, 'on the Dirty Pond', is related to the activities of the parishioners who discharged waste here.

In 1657, the church is mentioned as a stone structure, and the second reconstruction took place in 1679. By the end of the 17th century, a significant territory near the temple was acquired by Peter I's associate, A.D. Menshikov. His estate was located where the modern Post Office building stands. Menshikov became the patron of the new church: in 1701, he added a chapel of the Introduction, which became his private temple, and from 1705 began the construction of a new building, completed in 1707 (its main part has survived to this day).

The architect Ivan Zarudny, who created the new church, worked in the style of Peter's Baroque, borrowing features from European church architecture. His Moscow churches are characterized by vertical elongation. The temple became centralized, resembling a tower, and earned the nickname 'Menshikov's Tower'. About fifty bells were operated by a clock mechanism from England. The facades were adorned with white stone sculptures and statues. The main feature was a 30-meter spire topped with a figure of an angel with a cross. This motif was later repeated in the construction of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

The church's decoration was not completed: with the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, Menshikov lost interest in his Moscow estate. On June 14, 1723, lightning struck the spire, causing a fire. The bells were shattered, and the tower was not used for a long time (services were held only in the side chapels). It was only in the 1770s that the church was restored and services resumed. The high spire was not restored; it was replaced with an elongated dome with spiral decor. The arches in the tiers of the tower were bricked up, and they were no longer used as bell towers.

According to one version, the restoration of the church was carried out by the mason G.Z. Izmailov. The tower was used for secret Masonic meetings, and corresponding symbols and sayings appeared on the facades, which were destroyed in 1863 by order of Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow.

Along Arkhangelsky Lane, in 1806, a small church in honor of St. Fyodor Tyron was built with funds from the director of the Post Office, F.P. Klyucharov, according to the design of architect I.V. Yegotov (later consecrated in honor of Fyodor Stratilat). Unlike Menshikov's tower, this church had heating and was used in winter, also serving as a bell tower built over the building. The interior preserved an iconostasis and paintings from the second half of the 19th century.

In the 1930s, both churches were closed, but their interiors were almost undamaged. Only the four-column portico of the Fyodor church, which protruded beyond the red line of the lane, was dismantled. In 1948, both churches were reopened for services and handed over to the Antiochian Orthodox Church as a dependency. It has been functioning under the guidance of Bishop Niphon since 1977.

Particular attention is drawn to the iconostasis of the Gabriel church. It was created for another Moscow church, the Transfiguration of the Savior on Transfiguration Square. In 1964, when the latter was destroyed, the iconostasis was preserved and transferred to the Gabriel church. The old iconostasis was moved to the Assumption Cathedral of Makhachkala.