The house of merchant Alexander Karlovich Guk with a shop has practically survived to this day. The building was erected in the twenty-first quarter at the intersection of Dvoryanskaya (now Proletarskaya) and Bolshaya (Sovetskaya) streets after the fire of 1906.

Since 1878, Guk was engaged in the trade of haberdashery, household goods, hunting supplies, and musical instruments. He also made significant profits from the sale of jewelry. Documents from the State Bank indicate that the store had goods worth over one hundred thousand rubles, and the capital turnover reached seventy-five thousand.

With such income, Guk did not skimp on the construction of the building that would house his home and trading center. He paid special attention to the facade, which was designed in the Baroque style with the use of individual details. These elements created a wavy rhythm on the facade: complex profiled sandriks with a semicircular elevation, arched pediments on the attics, short decorative columns, and elegant balconies on consoles.

Similar elements were used in the decoration of many public buildings in Russia, including the Grand Gatchina Palace, the residence of Count Orlov, built in the 18th century by order of Catherine II. Although the merchants of Syzran were far from royal whims, they knew how to build not only sturdy but also unique houses that amaze us with their perfect lines and thoughtful shapes even a century later.

In 1917, this house passed into the ownership of the widow Emma Fedorovna Guk. However, just a year later, nationalization began in the country, and Guk's relatives were left without a roof over their heads, while their property ended up in the hands of others.

On the second floor of the former Guk house, a trading exchange and a grain products office were located, while part of the first floor was rented out for commercial premises. Later, educational institutions were housed in the building. Since the end of the last century, the city department of public education was located here, and now it is the Western Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Samara Region. In 2007, merchant Guk's house was included in the list of historical and cultural objects of the province.