In the 18th century, the plot where houses 17 and 25 on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street now stand belonged to Prince I.V. Odoevsky. In the 1850s, the owner of plot No. 17 was a young lady named Ponomareva, who rented an apartment to state councilor and author of "The Ice House" I.I. Lazhechnikov.

The small mansion, standing out among the surrounding buildings, attracts the attention of passersby due to the gable on the central risalit, which gives the building a Gothic and mysterious appearance. However, it cannot be called fully Gothic; rather, it is eclectic. The asymmetrical volume of the building, the shape of the windows, decorative mosaics, and signs of modernism. The semicircular finishes of the windows and columns on fantastical beasts refer to the pseudo-Romanesque style. This harmonious combination, executed with elegance and a sense of proportion, makes the work of architect K.S. Razumov an outstanding example of a Moscow mansion from the early 20th century.

The mansion was built in 1911-1912 for merchant and flax industrialist Alexander Vasilyevich Demidov (1872-1947), a descendant of the Vyznikov merchant-factory owners. He was born in the village of Mstyora in the Vyznikovsky district and owned a factory there. In 1906, he became the first chairman of the All-Russian Society of Flax Industrialists in Moscow. Alexander Vasilyevich was not related to the famous noble family of Demidovs, but his name is associated with a high-profile divorce that lasted almost twenty years.

His father, Vasily Vasilyevich Demidov (1848-1900), was a man of stern character and did not grant a divorce to his wife Maria Andreyevna Demidova (1850-1914), the mother of the mansion's owner, until his death. Maria Andreyevna sought help from the famous lawyer Fyodor Plevako, who fell in love with her. As a result, she became his mistress and moved in with Plevako along with her five children; they later married.

Alexander Vasilyevich Demidov lived in the mansion on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya for a short time, about five years. After the revolution, he emigrated to France, where, according to some reports, he was a delegate at the Russian Emigration Congress in Paris in 1926 and a member of the Russian Trade and Industrial and Financial Union. In 1929, at a Union meeting, he gave a report on the economic development of Russia after Bolshevism. He died in Paris in 1947, and the location of his burial is unknown. The house in central Moscow was nationalized; it first housed a kindergarten, then "Avtodor," and is now the Embassy of Pakistan.