The one-story house with a mezzanine, dating back to the first third of the 19th century, is a typical representative of the Arbat alleys. It is known in Moscow not so much for its architecture as for its literary and philosophical history.

From October 1, 1835, this house was rented by Nikolai Stankevich, a well-known Moscow writer and philosopher of the first half of the 19th century. He became famous not so much for his works as for creating a community of Moscow intellectuals known as the 'Stankevich Circle,' where he was the soul of the company. Young Muscovites, striving for truth, studied the philosophy of Schelling and Hegel here, passionately debating humanity's progress, dialectics, the fate of the Motherland, and their own destinies. Many representatives of the intellectual elite of Moscow at that time often visited Stankevich's house. This is reflected in the official name of the cultural heritage site of federal significance: 'The House Where Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich Lived from 1833 to 1836. Here he hosted V.G. Belinsky, T.N. Granovsky, and others.' The list includes representatives of the liberal wing of Russian public thought of that time. However, Stankevich's doors were also open to Slavophiles. It is not surprising that Konstantin Aksakov, who lived next door at house No. 12, left memories of the Stankevich Circle.

In the late 1920s, another notable person lived in this house, Nikolai von Meck, an entrepreneur and chairman of the board of the Moscow-Kazan Railway. He was the son of Nadezhda von Meck, who supported the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In 1928, N. von Meck was arrested in the 'Promparty' case and executed in 1929 as a member of a 'subversive organization' on the railways of the USSR, which he himself had built in better times.

In Stankevich's contract from the 1830s, house No. 8 on Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane was described as 'with a mezzanine, covered with iron and plastered, and painted cleanly inside.' This is how Stankevich's house remains today. The facade was slightly altered in 1884 but retains features of Moscow's 'post-fire Empire' style. The triangular pediment above the mezzanine was restored by restorers, although it was absent in photographs from the 1980s.