This income house on Povarskaya Street was built in 1914 by architect O.G. Piotrovich for Moscow landlord Ivan Stepanovich Baskakov. The six-story building is designed in the neoclassical style. The gray facade and few elements of stucco decor, stylized in Moscow classicism, give the house a solid and substantial appearance. Two side risalits are adorned with semicircular balconies on the top floor, supported by rosettes. In the center of the building, a two-story bay window rests on a light balcony that runs along the second floor. The main entrance is decorated with a semicircular bay window portal.

In the 19th century, there was a wooden house on this site belonging to the widow of Major E.Ya. Kostomarov, which was rented in the winter of 1829-1830 by M.Yu. Lermontov's grandmother, E.A. Arsenyeva. At that time, Lermontov was studying at the university noble boarding school and preparing to enter Moscow University, where graduates of the boarding school were admitted without exams. This period includes his early works, such as "Demon" and the poem "Monologue," which foreshadows "Thought." In the spring of 1830, the boarding school was transformed into a gymnasium, and Lermontov left it, going with his grandmother for the summer to Serednikovo, returning to another house on Malaya Molchanovka.

This house also became the last address of writer Ivan Bunin in Russia before his emigration. On the first floor, in apartment No. 2, lived the parents of his wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva. The Bunins arrived here on October 26, 1917, and spent the most anxious days of the revolution in Moscow. On May 21, 1918, they left for Odessa and then emigrated through Constantinople to Paris. Later, Ivan Bunin described these events in the book "Cursed Days," based on his diary entries. He wrote about how the magnificent houses on Povarskaya Street were requisitioned one after another, their furniture, carpets, and paintings were taken out, and in return, new office furniture was brought in for "government" institutions.

In 1993, a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the house, created by sculptor G.I. Pravotorov and architect S.I. Smirnov. In 2007, a monument to I. Bunin was erected in the square opposite the house, created by sculptor Burganov.

In the 1920s, writer Boris Pilnyak lived in this house, who was convicted in 1938 and sentenced to death on false charges of espionage in favor of Japan. His books were not published in the Soviet Union from 1938 to 1975, although he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956. Pilnyak wrote about himself: "I came out of White and Bunin, many do much better than me, and I consider myself entitled to take this best or make it even better."