Where the governor's palace currently stands, there was once the palace of the Kazan khans, and in the 18th century, the house of the chief commandant. The building was constructed as a residence for the military governor with accommodations for imperial apartments. The palace project, approved by Emperor Nicholas I in 1843, was developed by the St. Petersburg architect K. A. Ton, known as the author of the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The construction on site was overseen by military governor S. P. Shipov, who appointed engineer Malte as the chief builder, while architect A. I. Peske assisted in the work. Shipov wanted to orient the facade towards the Kazanka River, but the emperor did not approve this proposal. The interior decoration was handled by M. P. Korinthsky.

In the 20th century, the building served as the location for the authorities of the Tatar ASSR, including the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the TASSR. Today, the palace is the official residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. In the late 1990s, a fence was erected around it. The building has undergone restoration twice: in the 1970s and around the year 2000.

The architectural style of the two-story building with a mezzanine and basement is Russian-Byzantine with elements of pseudo-Renaissance. The center of the composition of the main facade is highlighted by a risalit, decorated with paired half-columns on the second floor and topped with a pediment featuring three arches. The entrances to the building are framed by two porticos with arched doorways and order columns. Arched window openings on both floors are divided by order pilasters. Behind the main volume of the building is a semicircular single-story circumferential structure that encloses the courtyard, and there is a passage to the inner courtyard on the side. The building's design features elements of the Renaissance, such as rustication on the first floor and paired pilasters, Baroque, the entablature above the columns of the main risalit and the shape of the pediments above the porticos, as well as elements of ancient Russian style, such as the weights above the second-floor windows that close the paired arched openings, and the figured supports of the side passage leading to the Palace Church. The top of the risalit repeats the shape of the zakomar of the Annunciation Cathedral, located on the other side of the courtyard.