In 1875, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Kursk Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, D. G. Zhavoronkov, appealed to the city mayor A. V. Tikhonov with a request to allocate a plot of land at the corner of Chistaya and Florovskaya streets, owned by the city.

Negotiations lasted for 25 years, and only in 1900 did the board of trustees receive a plot in the city center. A project for a new building was commissioned from engineer-architect A. A. Baumiller. On August 20, 1900, the project was reviewed, and on May 27, 1901, the ceremonial laying of the building took place. Construction was completed in 2.5 years.

The new building, costing 193,490 rubles, was large for a two-story house and had a powerful rusticated basement. Its brick facades were not plastered, which is why the gymnasium was nicknamed "the red one."

Every morning, 779 gymnasts came to classes in this well-equipped building. The semi-basement housed changing rooms, students' rooms, a buffet, a handicraft classroom, and living quarters for the gymnasium staff. A beautiful wide staircase led to the first floor.

The first floor housed spacious classrooms, a library, physics and natural science classrooms, a teachers' room, an office, an archive, the reception room of the gymnasium's headmistress, and her apartment.

A staircase with two flights led to the second floor. To the left of the entrance was a large hall for 1,000 people, while the other parts of the floor contained classrooms and an art room.

On January 15, 1909, a fire broke out in the gymnasium building, igniting the attic above the gymnasium hall. The fire was extinguished by Kursk firefighters with the participation of 341 soldiers from the Kursk garrison. As a result of the fire, the roof, walls, and floors of the gymnasium were damaged. By the beginning of the 1909-1910 academic year, the building was fully restored.

During World War I, the building housed the 78th evacuation hospital. The Mariinsky Gymnasium existed in Kursk until 1918, after which it was replaced by the 1st Labor School. During the Civil War, it housed the headquarters of the fortified area and the wards of the 80th hospital.

In 1921, the liberated building housed the Workers' and Peasants' University, which trained party and Soviet workers in six-month courses.

When Kursk became an administrative center, a pedagogical institute was established by the decision of the SNK of the RSFSR on July 22, 1934, which was located in the former gymnasium building. In 1935, it was decided to add floors and reconstruct the building according to the project of architect K. G. Petrovsky.

During the war, the institute was evacuated to Izhevsk and Sarapul, and many students went to the front. After the liberation of Kursk in February 1943, the institute building was in ruins. The occupiers looted and burned furniture and equipment. Partially evacuated property was returned, and the building was restored in 1948-1953 according to the project of architect A. I. Lezin. In 1991, a new 9-story building of the institute was constructed nearby.

In 1994, the institute was granted the status of a state pedagogical university.

In the large courtyard of the former gymnasium, a chapel named "In the Name of Cyril and Methodius" is being built according to the project of sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. This building will be visible from Kirova Street between the university and dormitory buildings.