The apartment house on the corner of Krylov Lane and Ostrovsky Square was built in1878-1879 by the famous St. Petersburg architect Nikolai Basin. He was also the owner of the house. The building is decorated in neo-Russian style, with elements of ancient Russian architecture and folk applied art. The facade is richly decorated with arches, stucco, kokoshniks, bay windows with turrets and platbands. The house stands out from the general ensemble of Ostrovsky square, built in the classical style.

Apartments in the Basin house were rented by wealthy people: merchants, nobles, high-ranking officers and officials. After the 1917 revolution, the building was nationalized, today it is an ordinary residential building. Representatives of the intelligentsia, employees and artists of the nearby Alexandrinsky Theatre continue to live there. A monument to the St. Petersburg janitor was opened next to the house in 2007.