On the corner of Dvoryanskaya and Poperechno-Pokrovskaya streets stood a two-story house owned by Maria Mikhailovna Kiseleva, a well-known philanthropist from Penza. After her estate was acquired by the spiritual administration for the construction of a new building for the Penza Spiritual Seminary, it was decided to place a model school in this house, as well as apartments for the teacher and the spiritual advisor of the seminary. However, in 1896, the rector of the seminary appealed to the Holy Synod with a request to convert this building into his own apartment, and in December of the same year, he was granted permission to do so.