In Oryol, the building at 26 Moskovskaya Street, near Ilyinskaya Square, belonging to merchant V.V. Apollonov, is well known. Even the nearby hotel "Orel" does not overshadow its facade with luxurious stucco, Venetian windows, columns, and elegant balcony details.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the industrial boom in agrarian Russia also affected the Oryol province. Modern buildings were actively constructed in Oryol and the district towns at the request of private individuals. Nobles hired famous architects, while merchants sought to replicate capital architectural masterpieces, inspired by Moscow merchants.

Apollonov began constructing his mansion with a trading hall on the first floor between 1895 and 1897, imitating the famous Eliseev, whose store in Moscow still impresses visitors. Although not everything has been preserved in Apollonov's house in its original form, the unusually high doors, the stone grand staircase, and the bright stucco ceiling decor, as well as the mosaic tiles on the first floor, still amaze visitors.

By 1899, among the modest houses of railway workers, a luxurious mansion with rich stucco, high Venetian windows, and a spacious shop selling Moscow, European, and colonial goods appeared. This attracted wealthy buyers, and soon the merchant recouped all expenses.

Local historians note that V.V. Apollonov himself possessed some craftsmanship skills. According to legend, he once hired a carpenter to work in the storage, but upon seeing the poor quality of work, he took up the tools himself and showed how to work properly. His house at 26 Moskovskaya is an example of the skill of human hands.

Apollonov was a successful grocer and ran a shop in the Trading Rows. He owned a two-story rental house nearby, decorated with carved elements to attract tenants.

After the events of October 1917, Apollonov left Oryol and Russia, and the building was nationalized. In the early years of Soviet power, it housed the provincial committee of the Bolsheviks, as evidenced by a memorial plaque on the facade. In the 1920s and 1930s, the house was used as residential accommodation for workers of the "Tekmash" factory and for institutions, and before the war, it housed the regional court.

After Oryol was liberated, the building was thoroughly renovated and handed over to vocational school No. 1, later transformed into the Oryol Technical School of Transport named after V.A. Lapochkin.

Documents indicating the architect have not survived, but according to local resident Varvara Mikhailovna Shegaleg, her father, architect Mikhail Mikhailovich Pukhalsky, often mentioned Apollonov's house as his creation. Pukhalsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers in 1865 and worked in Oryol from 1891 to 1904, so he could have been the author of this building.

Today, the building belongs to the technical school of transport, but inside, painted ceilings with stucco elements and a stone grand staircase have been preserved.