They were located at the end of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, in front of the present-day Gorky Square (on the site of the Central Post Office and the garden of the Ulybyshev house). Before the confirmation of the 1839 plan for Nizhny Novgorod, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya veered sharply to the left past Malaya Pokrovskaya Street, toward a log bridge over a channel of the Kovalikha Ravine. Under the 1839 plan, however, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya was to continue in straight lines along an earthen embankment, dividing the flooded ravine into two Pokrovsky Ponds. The embankment project — 10 sazhens wide and 154.5 sazhens long — was designed by engineer V. P. Stremoukhov. The works were allocated 14,868 rubles. The ponds were to be given a regular shape, with their banks planted with trees, creating yet another recreation area. By 1852, architect A. Turmyshev had largely completed the project, but petitioned the provincial authorities to order local residents to stop dumping refuse into the ponds. Nevertheless, the intensive development of the surrounding area and large-scale construction first caused the water in the ponds to stagnate, and then led to their gradual filling-in. In the 1880s, remnants of one of the Pokrovsky Ponds were still preserved on the site of present-day Zvezdinka Street.