The Men's Gymnasium, the oldest secular educational institution in the Tambov province, traces its origins to a folk school founded in 1786 on the initiative of Governor G.R. Derzhavin. Education at this school lasted four years. In 1804, it was transformed into the Tambov Provincial Men's Gymnasium with a six-year curriculum. In 1827, the city administration purchased from college assessor B.D. Khvoshchinsky a estate at the corner of Dvortsovaya and Penzenskaya streets to house the gymnasium's classes. This estate included two houses built in the early 18th century, whose facades faced Dvortsovaya Street. In 1866, both buildings were united by a new wing, which still stands out today with its semicircular window openings on the second floor. With funds from merchant A.M. Nosov, a gymnasium church was established in the new building, consecrated in 1869 in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky. With the construction of the new wing, Penzenskaya Street was renamed Gymnasium Street.

In the summer of 1918, the gymnasium was closed, and its building was repurposed as a military hospital. In 1924, the building came under the management of public education, and in the following years, various educational institutions were located here. In 1958, the Tambov branch of the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering opened in the building, commemorated by a plaque installed on the facade. Currently, the building serves as educational building 'C' of Tambov State Technical University.