The Moscow Polytechnic Society appeared in the capital in 1878 to unite all graduates of the Imperial Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University). In 1902, one of its members, engineer Abakumov, took the initiative to build its own building for the society with the money collected from all participants.

The project was led by architect Kuznetsov. Construction began in 1905, and a year later the house began to receive visitors. The author was inspired by the architecture of Victorian England. As decorative elements above the entrance, you can see the letters P and O (as you might guess, they mean the “Polytechnic Society”) and key dates — 1878 and 1905.

The first floor of the building housed offices of various institutions, on the second floor - a dining room, a meeting room and a library. The rest of the space was occupied by apartments that could be rented by almost anyone.

In Soviet times, it housed the Communist Youth League, where Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself visited. Now the house has returned to its true owners — engineers, and the Institute of Mechanical Engineering is located here.