The income house of A. A. Durlin was built in 1906 according to the design of architect Vladimir Vladimirovich Sherwood. Sherwood, known for his works in Moscow, created income houses, schools, industrial buildings, and mansions at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was often invited for the reconstruction and redesign of buildings.

This house is an example of his work on multi-apartment residential buildings. The four-story house was built at the corner of Bolshaya Ordynka and Chernigovsky Lane. The plot of land on which it stands was allocated from a large neighboring estate and sold to merchant Alexei Alexeevich Durlin, who was engaged in leather processing. Durlin was a hereditary honorary citizen, a deputy of the Moscow City Duma, a representative of the Moscow merchant class, and the elder of the Church of the Resurrection of the Word in Monetchiki. He lived on Valovaya Street, where his house was located at the site of the current building No. 8-18.

Before the construction of building No. 9/13, there was a firewood warehouse surrounded by a fence with a gate. Muscovites came here for firewood, but those who could preferred to stockpile it themselves and stored it in their yards.

Durlin's house is adorned with exquisite stucco above the entrances, featuring a leafy pattern and colorful tiles. During the Soviet era, the house was raised by two floors, which deteriorated its artistic qualities. Previously, the building was topped with a cornice with decorative attics, which disappeared due to the addition.

The tall house built by Sherwood separated the old main house of the plot from Bolshaya Ordynka, and now it looks out of place in the courtyard. In the early 20th century, a gymnasium of V. D. Kasitsyn operated in this house.