This street links two central squares - Minin and Svoboda (Freedom). It is one of the city's oldest streets; the buildings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are the most noticeable. The oldest houses are an eighteenth century wooden house (N8), and the former city drug store (N4), built in the eighteenth century and then rebuilt by the architect N. Grigoriev in 1883. Presently both of them are dwelling-houses.
The former building of the regional gymnasium (now the main building of the Nizhni Novgorod Teachers' Training Institute) houses a jewelry store located at the beginning of Varvarskaia Street.
The main library (N3) is situated in the former Noble Institute building, designed and built in 1843-1848 by A. Pakhomov, famous for participating in the reconstruction of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. The building is marked by features of academic eclecticism.
The architectural ensemble of the Oktiabrskaia (October) Square is not completed. The Auction Center (N1) houses many offices and the cozy "Assambleia" Restaurant. Across the street is the City Publishing Center.
The alms-house (presently a maternity hospital) (N42) built by N. Freilich in 1849, is also noteworthy.
N33 The "Saule" shop and bar is open twenty-four hours a day.