In 1840-1842, this building was bought by the university, and it was rebuilt by architect A.F.Shchedrin in the spirit of the Petersburg Neo-Baroque: two-color facades with a bow pediment and a huge hall in the center buildings with semi-circular high windows and a three-mast main staircase. This Rector's Wing, rebuilt in the style of the adjacent Twelve Collegia building, was the first building of its kind in the Russian Empire. But this house is famous not only for its architectural uniqueness, but for the people who lived in it.

Since the house was intended for the rector and his family, in the middle of the 19th century it was occupied by the rector of St. Petersburg University, poet P. A. Pletnev. Later, he was replaced by botanist A.N. Beketov, a botanist, and in the rector's house. But most of all, the house is known for the birth of his grandson Beketov, the future great Russian poet Alexander Blok. This event is evidenced by a plaque.

Sasha grew up in this house without a father, the tyranny and violence of which did not endure Alexander's mother and his grandfather, who drove his son-in-law out of the house. They say that little Sasha loved his grandmother's room most of all in this house, where he could stand on the windowsill for hours, looking at the Neva River and waiting for the midday shot from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress. In the courtyard of this house, at the age of three, the boy met his future wife Lyubochka Mendeleeva, the daughter of the famous scientist.

Now there is nothing in the building reminding us of those years and events. It was partially rebuilt, divided into small rooms, where the administrative services of the university are located.