The order for the construction of this house to architect Lidval came from Major General Count Mikhail Tolstoy, a fifth cousin of the great writer Leo Tolstoy. Fyodor Ivanovich Lidval at that time was the most famous architect in St. Petersburg, who built the most iconic Art Nouveau buildings in the Northern capital. The Petersburg nobility ordered the construction of their mansions to him, in addition, he worked on projects for the interior decoration of luxury hotels. The Tolstoy House was built in 1910-1912 as a classic example of Northern Art Nouveau — a style with features of architecture adopted in the Scandinavian countries.Plidval planned to build three large courtyards and connect them into a street leading from Rubinstein Street to Fontanka Embankment. All of them are united by huge arches made in the Renaissance style. By the way, these arches play the role of the streets of London in Igor Maslennikov's films about Sherlock Holmes, and they were also depicted in the series "Winter Cherry" and other famous films. Limestone, bricks and plaster of various colors were used in the decoration of both the front and interior facades of the house. The decoration of the building is restrained and is represented by oval windows, relief panels and small niches with vases, which are common in Art Nouveau. The Tolstoy House had the most diverse apartments: from tiny one-room cells to luxury apartments. During the construction of the building, water supply and elevators were provided.

Ptolstovsky house was a concentration of creative personalities. In different eras, writers Alexander Kuprin and Arkady Averchenko, musician Eduard Khil, ballerina Irina Kolpakova, poet Evgeny Rein and many other representatives of bohemia lived here. Visiting the local hosts, one could meet Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Dovlatov, Arkady Raikin.Today Tolstoy House is one of the most elite in St. Petersburg. And this is quite natural, given its rich history: no wonder the British claim that real estate becomes expensive only when it has a history. And Oscar Wilde believed that haunted houses were the most expensive. So the Tolstoy house also has its own "bad apartment", which concentrates all the negative energy in itself. This room is akin to the apartment No. 50 described by Bulgakov in The Master and Margarita. However, the Tolstoy apartment is listed at number 60, it has eight rooms and it is located on the last, sixth floor. For a hundred years, completely inexplicable things began to happen to everyone who moved into this apartment: any tenant became irritable and uncontrollably aggressive, communicated with others as with representatives of the lower caste and quickly received the nickname "urban madman". What made the inhabitants of this "bad apartment" different was their craving for endless denunciations. During the years of Stalin's repressions, people began to disappear from the apartment, and then a page with data about this apartment and its tenants disappeared from the House Book altogether. In the early 2000s, another "city madman" lived here, who harassed the residents of the house with his inappropriate behavior and eternal complaints.

Today Tolstoy house needs restoration of internal facades and restoration of courtyards.