The Contracts House was originally built to serve as a venue for trade and property transactions during the annual fair held in Kyiv from 1797. Between 1797 and 1811, it played an important role in the public and social life of the city. Merchants, landowners, and foreign guests gathered here not only to conclude commercial contracts but also to attend court sessions of the City Magistrate and concerts held in the main hall.

After its restoration in 1819, the building housed the Craftsmen’s Guild Administration, and from 1871, the Kyiv-Podil Women’s Gymnasium operated here. In September–October 1941, the building hosted meetings between leaders of the OUN(M), representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, and Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) regarding the establishment of the Kyiv City Administration.

Originally, the house was two storeys high — with a brick first floor and a wooden second floor, featuring semi-circular external stairs on the courtyard façade. In the 1811 fire, the upper storey burned down, but the brick lower level survived and was repaired in 1819 according to a project by architect Andriy Melenskyi. In 1878–1879, a second brick storey was added (architect S. Rykachov), and in 1900–1901, the building underwent another reconstruction, during which a third floor was constructed (architect Ye. Tolstoy).

Today, the three-storey plastered brick building, roughly U-shaped in plan, is designed in the Classical style. It remains an important architectural and historical monument of Podil, reflecting more than two centuries of Kyiv’s commercial, civic, and educational heritage.