Originally, Gorokhovaya Street stretched to the Moika River, and on the opposite bank was a large plot owned by the Musins-Pushkins. In 1737, a road was laid here and the Red Bridge was built.

After Count Platon Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery for his involvement in the Volynsky case, the plot in St. Petersburg, located to the left of the Red Bridge, passed to his relative Apollos Epaphroditovich Musin-Pushkin. The plot remained undeveloped, and the new owner was in no hurry to use it, which led to the land being confiscated by order of Elizabeth Petrovna and transferred to A. B. Buturlin.

In the early 1770s, his son, Pyotr Alexandrovich, built a stone house on the embankment of the Moika River in the style of early classicism. The external resemblance of this mansion to the Exchange suggests that it was designed by T. de Tomon.

In 1797, Dmitry Petrovich Buturlin sold the house to merchant Kusovnikov. In 1817, the mansion was purchased by the treasury for the first school for the deaf and dumb in Russia. The building was converted into a school without changing its exterior appearance. From 1844 to 1847, the house was significantly reconstructed according to the design of architect P. S. Plavov.

The building acquired a grand, official appearance: the center was adorned with nine half-columns, a fourth floor was added on the street side, and an internal reorganization was carried out. The house consists of two wings, facing Gorokhovaya Street and the Moika embankment. On the second floor, there was a large hall, above which was a church that retained some details.

The school for the deaf and dumb was founded in 1806 in Pavlovsk, and in 1810 it moved to St. Petersburg to the Vdoviy House, which was later transferred to the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. The school moved to Admiralty (Gorokhovaya) Street in 1820.

The church on the third floor of the school building was arranged by P. S. Plavov. Its consecration by Archimandrite Toviy took place on February 19, 1821, in honor of the Apostle Paul, the patron of the late husband of the dowager Empress.

The one-tiered iconostasis contained only four icons by Vasiliev; the altar "Crucifixion" was painted in 1822 by the deaf artist Stepan Sergeev. When the church suffered from a fire on July 30, 1840 (the icons and utensils were saved), services were temporarily moved to the recreation hall.

A new church, designed by the same Plavov, was laid on June 29, 1844, on the third floor, in the central part of the building on Gorokhovaya. Externally, it was distinguished by a portico of composite half-columns. The church was consecrated on May 14, 1847, by Bishop Nafanail of Revel.

Inside, the church was decorated with Ionic columns and pilasters made of artificial yellow marble, and the choir was supported by powerful consoles. Icons for the two-tiered white and gold iconostasis were taken from old ones, with the missing ones painted by the son of the aforementioned Vasiliev, while the Twelve Great Feasts were painted by drawing teacher A. I. Beller. According to the sketch of architect M. A. Makarov, an oak kiot was made in 1860 for the icon depicting Archangel Michael, saints Elena, Philip of Moscow, and St. Ephraim the Syrian, which was gifted to the church by Empress Maria Feodorovna, who embroidered a vestment for it in gold. She also gifted another icon, "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene." Notably, there was a tomb for the shroud, carved from dark stained oak. In the early 1860s, a bronze cross was installed on the roof of the building, donated by merchant A. D. Yelagin. Students spent ten years at the school, and the meaning of the services was explained to them in lessons of the Law of God and in special "conversations" using the sign language alphabet or writing.

After the revolution, the church became a parish on March 1, 1918, but it was closed and liquidated on March 9, 1923 (the iconostasis was transferred to the Museum of the Outdated Cult), and the premises were turned into a club. During the confiscation of valuables, the Bolsheviks seized eight poods of silver.

In 1996, the A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University returned the premises to the community, and on November 16, 1997, the first liturgy was held there. Regular services began in September 1999, and two years later, they started to be held once a month for the deaf.

The building belongs to the A. I. Herzen Pedagogical University.