In addition to the manor house, the estate included several stone outbuildings, log stables, a carriage house, a greenhouse, a barn, a watermill on a pond, and an orchard.
The first owner, Terentiy Venevitinov, built a house here in the mid-17th century. This marked the beginning of the estate's development. Over time, the Venevitinov family estate expanded significantly: they owned numerous villages along the banks of the Voronezh and Don rivers: Gorozhanka, Gvozdevka, Novozhivotinnoye, Mokhovatka, Pokrovka, and several others.
In the 1780s, Starozhivotinnoye was given as a dowry to Elizaveta Venevitinova, who married Nikanor Olenin (the stone Church of the Forerunner on the shore of the pond was built during his reign). The son of their marriage, Grigory Olenin, who held government positions in the capital, married his distant relative Varvara Olenina, the daughter of the president of the Academy of Arts and director of the public library, A. N. Olenin.