In Mokhovaya Street, to the left of Tenishevskoye School, there used to be a pleasing-the-eye squat mansion with Renaissance-style pilasters and high attic decorated with helms. This is how the building looked after the reconstruction in 1855 made for the then-owner senator S.V. Safonov according to the project of K. Alstrem, academician of architecture.

It was built, however, much earlier, as early as 1790-ies, by an “eminent citizen” I.F. Dolgov. By that time a stone two-storied building had already been erected in that area, that extended as far as Fontanka, with its fa?ade facing Mokhovaya Street, erected by Dolgov twenty years before. A sizeable territory of the plot was empty, and the provident owner decided to replenish his income by building another house. Having completed the work, he placed an advertisement in “St. Petersburg Bulletin” in October 1794:

“A number of chambers with all… conveniences are offered for rent in a newly-constructed building of eminent citizen Dolgov located in Mokhovaya Street, the section closer to Liteyny Prospect, near the church of St. Simeon, the Venerable-Senex and Theofer”. By early 1800-ies the former Dolgov’s lot was passed to state official Osipov and later on divided in two: the present-day building No. 39 became the property of Old Believers’ community.

The next notable page in the history of the building is connected with Duke K.O. Lambert, cavalry general, who settled here after being appointed senator in 1826. The French aristocrat was subsequently an active and successful participant of Napoleon wars, being in command of cavalry corps; his portrait can be seen in the War Gallery of the Winter Palace.

In mid-1850-ies the mansion was passed to the already-mentioned Stepan Vasilyevich Safonov, former official of the chancellery of Duke M.S. Vorontsov. Safonov was acquainted with A.S. Pushkin – they both were sent on assignment to visit subordinate districts in 1824.

Reaching the high rank of Privy Councillor and appointed senator, Safonov acquired his own dwelling and configured it in the manner as shown to us by the old postcard…