[5] Peter the Great presented Kamenny Island to Count Gavriil Golovkin, Chancellor of the Russian Empire.

After his family fell into disgrace, the island passed to his successor, Count Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin.

During the 19th century, the island was home to summer retreats ("dachas") of the Russian royalty and nobility.

At the easternmost tip of the island stands the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, built by Georg von Veldten for Paul I and the Neo-Gothic church of Saint John of Jerusalem (1776–81) constructed in honor of the victory at Chesma and frequented by Alexander Pushkin during his stay at a dacha on Kamenny Ostrov.

A cluster of Pushkin's last poems, including his version of Exegi monumentum, date from that period.