In 1882 the governor signed a decision to establish a real school in Izyum. Before that, only women's school was functioning in Izyum, where 39 students from noble families were educated. After the decree was signed, the construction of the school began. The school was opened on 15 August 1882. It accepted 100 pupils. The school had a preparatory class, 6 main classes and one additional class. There were two libraries - one of them was fundamental, it contained about 3 thousand volumes of different literature, and the second library was a student library, it contained about 1000 volumes. In the fundamental library there were books of artistic and historical content, fiction. Teachers and pupils of senior classes could use the library with the permission of the class teacher. Three foreign languages, drawing, drafting, mathematics, physics, chemistry were studied in the real school. There was a botanical garden and a meteorological station near the school. The teachers of the school organised literary and musical evenings, brass band and choir performances. The real school was attended mainly by children of wealthy parents.

On March 5, 1917 a rally of workers took place in front of the building.

In 1918 the Bolshevik faction held meetings in the school. In 1919 the headquarters of the 13th Army, which fought against the White Army, worked here. In 1920 in the former real school there was a technical school and worked Rabfak. In 1920 Dmitri Ivanovich Turbin graduated from five classes of the real school in Izyum.

In 1925 the seven-year Ukrainian school No. 1 was opened here.

In 1934 Russian school No. 4 was opened on the ground floor of the house. Maria Ivanovna Protsenko became the director of the school.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the school had graduated two tenth grades. After the beginning of the war a hospital was equipped in the building. The school became located on Gogol Street, Sobornaya Street and Pushkin Street. During the occupation the school premises were destroyed. On the 5th of February 1943 during the retreat German troops set fire to the school building. The building was rebuilt and restored in 1950-1951. In 1950-1960 the school was used as a base for the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute, here the future philologists had their practice.

In this school studied: N.A. Skrypnyk, P.E. Shelest, Ukrainian writer and scientist D.Y. Shlapak, V. Kuznetsov, academician V. Kononenko, V. Litvin, N. Shpanovich, O. Zhurov, O. Lukashova, E. Doroshenko. Now in this building there is a secondary school No. 4 in Izyum.

The building of the real school in Izyum was built in the Classicism style. The building is recognised as a historical monument of architecture of the XIX century.

The building after the battles for Izyum during the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022.
The building was destroyed during the fighting for Izyum.