N. Mikhailova – V. Talgren's city estate

The Mikhailova-Talgren estate stands at the very heart of the famous tangle of Arbat alleyways. Back in the day, that area was part of the trade road to Smolensk and Volokolamsk; in the 16th century, Ivan Grozny's oprichnina system boosted rapid population growth: the free land was used for numerous palace neighborhoods that serviced royal kitchens and household – Skaternaya, Stolovaya, Khlebnaya, Nozhovaya, Plotnichya, etc.

The property under the modern number 5 dates back to the mid-18th century, when Quartermaster Nikolay Alaberdeyev sold it to his neighbor, Captain-Lieutenant Nikita Kokovinsky in 1749. After changing hands a number of times, it was finally acquired by Life Guard Lieutenant Aleksandr Golitsyn who ordered two residential wooden wings and service outbuildings to be erected. All that perished in the 1812 fire, however, and the property was purchased by Collegiate Counselor’s wife Marya Pustrosleva.

By 1821, it had been transformed into an estate, designed in the best traditions of the post-fire Empire style. It featured a single-story wooden mansion on a stone foundation, a residential wing, a carriage shed and a cellar. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the property's owners during that period, beside the initials of the woman who ordered the construction and gave her name to the estate.

In the 1860s, another female owner, E. Ermolova, was renting the estate out to Prince Urusov.

In 1897, the property was purchased by Vladimir Talgren, a Finnish national and a Moscow merchant who traded in paper yarn and stationaries; soon, he came to well-known architect Karl Gippius (who had designed the Perlov Tea House on Myasnitskaya Street) to order a stone facility with a residential wing to replace the old stable building. Its first floor was occupied by the offices of Talgren V.E. & Co. while the second one was rented out.

The development continued in 1901; this time, it was the main house which was reconstructed and got a stone annex with a corner tower and fully renovated façades. The project was designed by P. Zarutsky and A. Antonov; a few years later, the entire building was finished in a single style, with an Art Nouveau look. It got rocaille mouldings, curved niches over its windows and the three female heads. Horizontal profiles over the central windows were decorated with floral ornaments featuring sunflowers in the middle.

Before the Revolution,
owners used to occupy the mansion, while five-bedroom apartments on the first
and second floor of the wooden wing were rented out. After being nationalized
in the 1920s, the estate was used by the Khamovnichesky District orphanage No.8
and was later handed over to serve the diplomatic corps.