In the 1820s, a plot of land at the corner of Nevsky prospect and the Fontanka River embankment was bought by merchant Fyodor Lopatin. Two four-storey buildings had alreadybeen built here. According to the project of architect Vasily Morgan, another building was addedto them. As a result, the house contained about a hundred apartments, which made it one of the largest apartment buildings in that-time St. Petersburg.

The house was nicknamed “literary” because of its famous tenants. From 1842 to 1846, the literary criticist Vissarion Belinsky rented an apartment here. Writers Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Goncharov, publicist and political writer Alexander Herzen would frequently visit him. In the 1850s the great novelist Ivan Turgenev also lived in Lopatin's house at the time when he was working on the cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter". At the same time, the poet and diplomat Fyodor Tyutchev lived here for a while.

In 2009-2010, the building fell into disrepair, it was partially demolished, retaining the facades,and almost completely rebuilt. Now there are offices and commercial areas in the building.