The main house of Prince Vasily Alexeyevich Khovansky, a monument of history and culture, acquired its Empire style after the fire of 1812. It is the only 18th-century house that has survived in Arbat. In this house, Dmitry Sverbeyev, a friend of Pushkin and a memoirist, was born in 1799. In the 1820s, the house was owned by retired cornet Count Vasily Alexeyevich Bobrinsky, the grandson of Catherine II and Count Grigory Orlov, who was a patron and friend of many Decembrists. Here he lived under secret police surveillance, waiting out his disgrace, which, however, did not significantly affect his career. Nine years later, he moved to St. Petersburg and sold the estate. From 1834 to 1835, actress Ekaterina Semenova-Gagarina lived in this house. Alexander Pushkin mentioned her in 'Eugene Onegin':

There Ozherov shared the involuntary tribute
Of the people's tears, applause
With young Semenova....

Ekaterina Semenova was an illiterate serf actress but very talented. She achieved success and shone in Moscow theaters. Pushkin often saw her in performances and met her in St. Petersburg literary circles. One of the first copies of 'Boris Godunov' was gifted to her with the inscription 'To Semenova, from the author.'

In the mid-19th century, the house was acquired by the military department, which remains here to this day. Since 1921, it has housed the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Moscow Military District, now the Moscow District Military Court.

A separate attraction is the wall of the house facing Krivoarbatsky Lane. In 1990, the inscription 'Today Viktor Tsoi has died' appeared on it, to which the response 'Tsoi is alive' soon followed. In 2006, attempts were made to paint over the inscriptions, but the wall was restored. Fans of the musician have a tradition of leaving a broken lit cigarette in a special ashtray by the wall.