Next to the meat passage, which functioned reliably until 1877, when the meat trade moved to a new market building on Bakunina Street, there was a livestock yard from which meat was supplied for sale. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of peasants from serfdom, it was decided to build the People's House in honor of the Tsar-Liberator.

The winner of the competition organized by the city council for the design of the People's House was 29-year-old civil engineer Alexey Evgenyevich Yakovlev from Vologda, who was entrusted with the construction of the building. Work began in the summer of 1912, but due to World War I, the pace of construction slowed, and the opening of the People's House took place only on September 20, 1916. By that time, the building was rented by the Penza Dramatic Circle named after V.G. Belinsky. The first theatrical season in the new premises began with the staging of A.N. Ostrovsky's comedy 'Poverty is No Vice,' which became a tradition for the circle.

After the revolution, the troupe of the dramatic circle was renamed the garrison theater, and later the dramatic theater, which was named after the People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky in 1920. Anatoly Vasilyevich visited Penza twice, in 1924 and 1929, and performed on the stage of the People's House.

On January 24, 1927, Vladimir Mayakovsky read his poems here. This was his second visit to our city, but the poet's connection with Penza did not end there. In the fall of 1928, in Paris, he met Tatyana Yakovleva, the daughter of the architect who designed the People's House. He fell in love with her, and as the poet's friend V. Kamensky wrote, she became 'one of the components of the overall sum of the brewing tragedy,' the poet's suicide.

Many celebrities performed on the stage of the People's House and the Penza Regional Dramatic Theater: P.N. Orlenev, V.N. Davydov, I.S. Kozlovsky, S.Ya. Lemeshev, L.O. Utyosov, M.I. Zharov, O.P. Tabakov, A.A. Mironov, and many others, leaving a piece of their soul in our hearts. On October 1, 1999, celebrations were held here in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Penza Diocese, with the honored guest being Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Rus.

The building of the People's House in its original form existed until the early 1960s, after which it was reconstructed and acquired a modern appearance.