This is the former building of the Nobility Assembly. It was built in 1856 in the style of Russian Classicism for the noble society according to the design of the province architect A.A. Gopius (according to different data, Khabarov). This is a two-storied stone building. It is simple and strict, with rightangled windows on the first floor and arch windows on the upper floor. A molded marten – the emblem of Ufa crowned with a crown decorates the facade.
In 1979 a new bulk to the right wing of the building from the side of Pushkin Street was built, some small interior changes were made. In 1990s the central entrance in the building was reconstructed, inside one of the cast-iron staircases was replaced with a concrete one with marble crump. In 2001 a new entrance to the building from Soviet square was opened, the hall was decorated with granite and marble.
Since 1885 there was the Society of Amateur Singers, Musicians and Drama Actors, since the end of the 1890s – Novikov boarding school, since 1918 – the boarding school for the children evacuated from Moscow and Petrograd, in 1919 – the club of the trade workers, in 1930–1940s – the Republic library, in the years of the Great Patriotic War there was Institute of Marx, Engels, Lenin under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks, then – Ufa College of Music, since 1968 – Ufa State Academy of Arts. A great bass Feodor Chaliapin was singing in the former building of the Noble Assembly in 1891. To honor this event here is a memorial board (1967) and near the building – a statue of Feodor Chaliapin (architect R.A. Khasanov). In 1919 the Highest ruler of Russia, admiral Alexander Kolchak delivered a speech here.
