About the book: 1923 / Pyotr Nikolaevich Stolpyansky (1872-1938) - historian, local historian, bibliographer, employee of the Russian Museum and Public Library, a member of a number of scientific and historical societies, one of the first prominent local historians of St. Petersburg, who became indispensable for fellow historians, art historians, and philologists who specialized in other topics but needed information on the history of St. Petersburg. Studied at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. Participated in the work of revolutionary student circles. From 1912 to 1918, P.N. Stolpyansky worked at the Russian Museum as a librarian and bibliographer. He contributed to the magazines “Old Years”, “Russian Bibliophile”, “Zodchiy”, etc. After the October Revolution, he led excursions, gave lectures, and published in periodicals. The researcher created a unique card index on the history of St. Petersburg, consisting of about half a million cards. In 1930 he donated it to the Public Library. Each of the researcher’s works is replete with many references to sources that are included in his file cabinet. The entire narrative is woven from hundreds of important and entertaining facts gleaned from documents, memoirs of contemporaries, reports from foreigners, old newspapers, and from urban planning drawings and plans. In this case, the area of ​​the Admiralty and the adjacent streets was chosen as the object of study. The author tells how this future center of the naval power of the Russian Empire was built, how irrigation work was carried out, and what future projects for the development of the naval department arose. The history of the development of the bank along the Moika River and the legend about the birth of Nevsky Prospekt are considered. The author weaves into his narrative a lot of details that enliven the city's history: where the first tavern appeared, how beer and wine were sold in the 18th century, what they traded at the maritime market. It tells about the oldest and most remarkable buildings of the Admiralty Island: the wooden Winter Palace, the houses of Chicherin, Neumann, Lobanov-Rostovsky and others, about the book trade of Plushar and the work of the Free Printing House, about the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the emergence of lithographic art in Russia. Note to the electronic version of the book: several obvious typist errors have been corrected in the text; all questionable passages have been left in accordance with the original text. The original text omitted a large number of footnotes, the text of which is nevertheless present. PDF of the original can be obtained from NEB: http://neb.rf/catalog/005289_000028_E1A11984-719D-47F6-B10F-628722269D8C/viewer/