In 1920, he fled from the Crimea to Turkey and arrived in the United States in 1923. With his wife of 11 years, the Mexican opera singer Maria Ignacia Howard Toutorsky, he opened the Toutorsky Academy of Music and ran it for nearly four decades. Among the furnishings were collections of dolls; swans; World War I medals, decorations and uniforms; stuffed wild animals; a pedestal displaying under glass, Toutorsky claimed, Napoleon's hat; a bailalaika; a polar bear carpet; Persian carpets and tapestries; heavy antique furniture; and 21 pianos, including a Bechstein concert grand on which Franz Liszt had played. Toutorsky had studied piano with Liszt himself. One of the violin teachers he employed was Marius Thor. In November 1988, the Toutorskys bequeathed the house to Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Conservatory of Music in exchange for an annuity and lifetime use of the mansion's carriage house. After Maria's death in 1988 and Basil's in 1989, the university rented some rooms to students for $1 a month to keep the house occupied. University officials sought $1.5 million for the house, but ultimately sold it December 1990 for $808,000 and used the proceeds to endow a piano studio and a scholarship fund named for Toutorsky. The buyer was Bruce Johnson, who owned a Dupont Circle firm that performed historic renovations. He pronounced it fundamentally sound, and planned some painting, patching and plastering. Ultimately, he added air-conditioning and bathrooms. The building received much restoration and cosmetic work in preparation for a 1992 fundraising event called "National Symphony Orchestra Decorators' Show House." Johnson used the building to host other community events, meetings and other gatherings. These included "Broadway Cares" benefits for AIDS/HIV research and treatment that featured live performances by cast members of "Angels in America" and other shows visiting the Kennedy Center. Johnson and his partner Keith Kreger also rented out rooms in the house to members of the DC LGBT community, celebrated authors, political biographers, writers for national publications, political organizers, and others. In 2001, realtor Humberto Gonzalez bought the property for $2.2 million. He sought to run it as a 16-room bed-and-breakfast inn and event venue, but nearby residents objected, and the city ultimately granted him a license to offer just six rooms for rent.