The foundation plaque for the Church of John the Baptist dates back to 1903. It is associated with the construction of a Taganrog church which was attended by residents of Skaramangovka worker’s settlement.

The settlement was located between the shore of Taganrog Bay and the nearby metallurgical plant. It was home to Taganrog residents who worked at the local tannery, boiler, and metallurgical enterprises. The lands that the settlement was built on, as well as those in the Malaya Cherepakha area, belonged to Ivan Amvrosiyevich Skaramanga, a wealthy merchant of Greek origin, industrialist, and Belgian consul.

He owned a large brick factory that produced bricks used to construct many buildings in Taganrog. One of them was the mansion of the landowner and grain merchant Yevgeny Ivanovich Sharonov. Nowadays, it houses the Taganrog Museum of Architecture and Urbanism.

The foundation stone of the Church of John the Baptist was laid on May 11, 1903. It was marked by the placement of the foundation plaque at its base. During the official ceremony, one of the speakers said,

The church was designed by the city’s architect Sergey Ilyich Gushchin. Donations in the amount of over 7,000 rubles were collected for the construction of the church. The management of the metallurgical plant donated sheet iron for the church and the material for the foundation. Ivan Skaramanga’s family donated part of their land and over 200,000 bricks.

The construction of the church was completed in 1904 and the bells were mounted on Sunday, September 10. Three days later, the largest bell, weighing 105 poods or 1,719 kilograms, was raised to the bell tower after the Divine Liturgy and prayer service.

Soon, the building was dismantled.