House number 10 on Pesochnaia Street, now known as Professor Popov Street, was built in the mid-19th century for merchant Balashov. In 1891, it was purchased by journalist V. O. Miknevich from merchant Alonkin. In 1894, the building was reconstructed, and during Miknevich's ownership, a second floor was added according to the design of architect E. P. Weinberg. In 1904, Miknevich bequeathed the house to the Society for the Assistance of Needy Writers and Scholars, known as the Literary Fund.

The main activity of the Literary Fund was to provide financial support to writers, which was often lacking. The fund included more than 55 writers, and its chairpersons over the years included A. P. Zablotsky-Desyatovsky, Y. K. Grot, G. K. Repinsky, V. P. Gaevsky, N. S. Tagantsev, V. I. Sergeevich, K. K. Arsenyev, and V. A. Manassein. When the house was owned by the Literary Fund, apartments were provided for free to the most needy writers and their families or rented out for a small fee.

Russian avant-garde, one of the directions of modernism in Russia, thrived from 1900 to the 1930s, peaking in 1914 and 1922.

In 1912 and 1923, outstanding figure of the Russian avant-garde, artist, violinist, and composer Mikhail Matyushin (1861, 1934) lived in apartment number 12 with his wife Elena Guro (1877, 1913).

In the 1910s and 1920s, the house became a kind of center for Russian futurists. Notable figures such as K. Malevich, P. Filonov, Matyushin's colleagues from GINKHUK, the Ender siblings, Valida Delacroix, Nikolai Kostrov, Evgenia Magaril, as well as writers Maxim Gorky and Alexei Kruchyonykh often visited. V. Mayakovsky and V. Khlebnikov also lived and worked in this house.

In 1942 and 1944, writer V. V. Vishnevsky lived here.

In 1977, Matyushin's house was transferred to the State Museum of the History of Leningrad. However, the museum was never opened, and throughout the 1980s, the house remained boarded up, gradually deteriorating, and by the end of the decade became a shelter for the homeless. In 1990, the building burned down, and only a few years later was it restored.

In April 2004, a decision was made to open the Museum of Petersburg Avant-Garde in Matyushin's house, and its opening took place in December 2006.