This house is known to all residents of Tula and is located in the very center of the city, next to the Kremlin. Currently, it houses the "Tula Samovars" museum, and those who have lived in Tula for a long time remember that the central Lenin Library was located here.

The elegant building with columns has been home to many significant institutions in Tula, such as the central library, local history museum, art museum, radio factory, chess club, and the "Tula Antiquities" museum. But let's go in order.

The former Kiev Street, now Lenin Avenue, began at the walls of the Tula Kremlin. In the late 18th and mid-19th centuries, there was a city guardhouse here, destroyed by fire in 1834 and then relocated to the territory of the Kremlin. In 1875, a new building was constructed in its place. In 1910-1912, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, the building was reconstructed according to the design of Tula architect S. Sirotkin and acquired its modern appearance. At that time, it was called the House of Emperor Alexander II and served as a place for the city library and various cultural institutions.

In 1914-1915, a hospital was located here, and a bust of the Tsar-Liberator was installed in front of the building. After the revolution, the bust disappeared, and the pedestal was altered: eagles were replaced with stars and used for a bust of Karl Marx, gifted by the workers of the Ural Kaslinsky factory, founded by Tula native Demidov.

During the Soviet era, the building was named after Karl Marx, and the Tula Museum of Revolution opened in it, which later became the regional art and local history museum. The bust of Karl Marx, installed in 1925, was moved to the Kremlin Garden in the 1960s.

The history of the Tula Regional Local History Museum began on May 18, 1919, in the house named after Karl Marx, previously known as the house named after Alexander II. On this day, an exhibition was opened, showcasing a valuable collection from the diocesan Antiquities Chamber, organized in the mid-1880s by historian-local historian Nikolai Ivanovich Troitsky, as well as collections from nationalized noble estates in Tula province. Thus, May 18 became the birthday of the Art and Historical Museum, which became the Tula Local History Museum in 1927.

In 1932, the museum moved to a merchant mansion on Soviet Street, where it still resides today. In September 1937, with the formation of Tula Region, the museum was named the Tula Regional Local History Museum.

In the following years, the building housed the Society of Sobriety, the House of the Doctor, a scientific and technical library, and a club where Veresaev and Serafimovich performed. Then, on May 11, 1919, the Central City Library opened here, which was renamed the Tula Regional Library in 1937.

Initially, the library's collection consisted of archives from Tula libraries and books from abandoned houses, including noble estates, totaling about one million volumes. In the 1920s, many clubs operated here, including a scientific and technical club, which hosted various circles and societies, such as the Tula Provincial Society of Radio Friends, which led to the establishment of the radio factory, the Scientific Society of Doctors of Tula, the Esperanto Society, a chess and checkers section, an accounting section, and a philatelists' society.

On November 7, 1990, the "Tula Samovars" museum opened in the building, a branch of the Tula Regional Local History Museum.