Near the Arsenal is the “Commander’s House”. It was created even before the Arsenal was built, as an office and residence for the Commander of the Grenadier Guards Battalion within the “Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Brigade”. In 1837, when Grand Duke Paul Friedrich took over the reins of power, he also turned his attention to the development of the army, on Prussian lines. This included moving the military infrastructure back from Ludwigslust to Schwerin, modernizing the weapons system and officer training, and building the Stables opposite the Castle Island and the Arsenal on the Pfaffenteich.
The windows of the piano nobile have decorative gables; their stucco helmets still allude to the building’s former role. The timber-framed building with a solid stucco façade was passed on to a manufacturer in 1863 in a house exchange. Soon afterwards various shops moved into the ground floor of the Commander’s House and the building is still used for retail trade.