The three-story building in Rostov-on-Don at the corner of present-day Budennovsky Avenue and Pushkinskaya Street was built in the 1880s for the needs of Kushnaryov Tobacco Factory. In 1914 the "Ya. S. Kushnaryov Partnership" together with Aslanidi Tobacco Factory joins merged with Asmolov Tobacco Factory Enterprise, and so the building on Budennovsky Avenue was rebuilt in 1914-1915 in the Empire architectural style on the project of the Armenian architect Arutyun Khristoforovich Zakiev.[1]
After the restructuring the building was turned into a 1st class hotel. In the center of the hall there was a fountain, and at the entrance to the dining room in a niche was an aquarium with fish, which was included in the restaurant's menu.[citation needed]
The walls in the dining room were painted in light cream colors. The dining hall was meant to host about 800 visitors.[2]
On 13 June 1919 in the lobby of the hotel was killed the chairman of Kuban Rada, coroner Nikolai Ryabovol, who advocated the independence of the Kuban and its separation from Russia, with the subsequent refusal to participate in the Civil War. The killer in officer's straps shot him twice in the back and disappeared.[3]
