The building, which is under the balance of the Novgorod United Museum-Reserve, has been transferred for gratuitous use to the Novgorod College of Arts. Since 1992, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and possesses outstanding universal value.

Built in 1878, the building originally served as a seminary. According to the Ministry of Culture of the Novgorod Region, the project was developed by diocesan architect A. Borshchov. This building housed the administration of the seminary, an archive, a hospital, a library, as well as a dormitory for students, a dining room, and a kitchen. Later, it housed the Museum of the October Revolution, and then provincial and Soviet institutions, the city committee of the VKP. The building was adapted for a music school during a major renovation in 1959. The last major renovation took place here half a century ago, in 1970.