According to Veresaev, the history of the mansion and the series of tragedies associated with it are just one of the urban legends that are hard to imagine without the gothic buildings of Moscow. In reality, events unfolded more mundanely. Wealthy Moscow merchants Alexei and Vyacheslav Novikov hired the famous architect Sergey Mikhailovich Goncharov to build the mansion. Goncharov created a pseudo-gothic design, and in 1907, one of the most notable buildings appeared on Bolshaya Polyanka. The mansion adorned the street and became an important part of its architectural appearance. A palisade was laid out in front of it, separated from the street by a light metal fence.

In 1915, when the owner became Klavdiya Dmitrievna Sveshnikova, the carriage entrance was abolished and converted into living quarters. This allowed for the creation of a staircase to the gallery on the second floor, where a stone lion was placed.

After the 1917 revolution, the mansion was nationalized and became a pioneer house. Soviet guidebooks wrote that the new owners were children, some of whom later became famous. At the pioneer house, world chess champion Vasily Smyslov, artistic director of the Lenkom Theater Mark Zakharov, and sculptor Mikhail Anikushin were involved. The pioneer house on Polyanka lasted a long time, surviving the Soviet era and continuing to operate in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2005, the restoration of the Novikov mansion began, which had the status of a federal cultural heritage site. It was completed nine years later. Restorers restored the grand vestibule with gothic decor and the staircase with an openwork railing and forged ornamentation. In the large room on the first floor, which used to be a home theater and concert hall, fragments of early 20th-century painting were found. In the gothic hall, the original oak window and door fillings were preserved.

In 2014, the building was transferred to the Yuri Bashmet Children's Fund to create a cultural center for talented children engaged in music. The magnificent mansion on Bolshaya Polyanka meets the architectural requirements of the early 20th century: individual character, division into residential, courtyard, and garden zones, and the interconnection of internal space and architectural volume.

The Novikov house is one of the iconic pseudo-gothic buildings in Moscow. Attention is drawn to the finials in the window frames, balcony railings, corner turrets with pointed roofs resembling birdhouses. Elegant bay windows and a small balcony on the facade give lightness to the gothic silhouette.