Maria Pavlovna was an artist, teacher, founder and first director of the Yalta house-museum. When Chekhov died, she started collecting, organizing and publishing letters from Anton Pavlovich. Her brother’s fate was more important to her than her own. The writer recalled: ‘Maria Pavlovna is in charge here, and the porridge cannot be cooked without her. I fully depend on her. "

Maria Pavlovna was able not only to preserve the house and the garden, but also that special ‘Chekhovian’ atmosphere that prevailed here during the writer’s life. Having connected her life with the fate of her brother, she transferred this voluntary care to the Yalta house after his death. She did not abandon the White Dacha either during the civil war, or during the earthquake of 1927, or during the occupation of Crimea by fascist troops. And she always followed the traditions of the house, established in the time of Anton Pavlovich.

In 1903 in Moscow, Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova received flowers, which grew in the White Dacha, sent by her husband. Later it became a good tradition. When the writer died, Maria Pavlovna sent bouquets to Olga Leonardovna. Now this custom is supported by the museum staff. During their visits to Moscow, they always bring flowers from Belaya Dacha with them and lay them on the graves of Chekhov and his wife at the Novodevichy cemetery.