The Ilyinskaya Church was built in 1844 thanks to the efforts of all the city's residents. It was made of stone and sturdy, with five altars: the main one and four in the chapels. In the cold chapels were the altars of St. Nicholas and St. Martyr Empress Alexandra, while in the warm ones, in honor of the Meeting of the Lord and the icon of the Kazan Mother of God.

The church was well supplied with church utensils and had a stone watchman's lodge. The nearest church to it was the Cathedral Trinity Church in the same city. The church had no estate land, but in 1879, 33 desyatinas of arable land were allocated to it from the allotments of the peasants of the village of Yeremenikha. A church-parish school operated at the church, opened on January 15, 1888.

By 1912, the church was visited by up to four thousand parishioners, and it owned 33 desyatinas of land. However, on March 2, 1930, the authorities decided to close the church. Its building and bell tower were dismantled, and 2 million bricks were used for the construction of a military department. The modern Lunacharsky Street was previously called Ilyinskaya, as the Ilyinskaya Church, which gave the street its name, was located there.