The oldest house in the alley is a monument of architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries, executed in the style of Moscow pre-fire classicism. In 1758, the chief prosecutor Lukyan Ivanovich Kamynin, who also organized the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice, bought a plot of land from his brother-in-law, Prince G.A. Shcherbatov, for 150 rubles and began the construction of a stone building. By 1770, a two-story main house and a right wing with a rounded corner were erected, and in 1778, the left wing. The wings are also two stories but lower in height. The facades of the main house are made in a strict early classicism style with rectangular window frames and a single diamond-shaped keystone above the windows of the second floor. After the fire of 1812, only the brick skeleton of the building remained.

In 1815, the plot was acquired by merchant M.P. Zabelin, who restored the estate in 1821 and 1823. A modest portico with four Corinthian half-columns appeared on the facade of the main building. Zabelin's daughter, Olga, married collegiate advisor Yevgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov in 1816, and their son, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, became a famous Russian writer and often visited his grandfather's estate.

Until the end of the 19th century, the estate was owned by the descendants of the Zabelins, and part of the buildings was rented out. Notable residents included dancer Adam Glushkovsky, philologist I.F. Kalaydovich, and artists I.I. Vivien and A.S. Yastrebilov. In 1865, the editorial office of the 'Moscow Newspaper,' published by local historian N.P. Bocharov, was located here. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, a private gymnasium was housed in the building, and in the 1920s, a seven-year school and classrooms of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow University. Today, it houses the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The building has preserved its remarkable early classical facades and stucco work in the interiors.