In 1783, Bakhmut salterns were shut down, causing the eviction of local salt workers to Pokrovska sloboda (settlement). With them, they took the wooden church by dismantling it and rebuilt it in a new place. However, in 1797, on the site of the church that was moved to Pokrovske village, a new one was built of bog oak. Thus appeared St Nicholas Church in the eastern part of Bakhmut, known locally as “Zabakhmutka.”

The first mention of the church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker occurs in the 1798 Description of the City of Bakhmut and its Povit: “In the suburbs, there are three wooden churches, two of them parish, the first being the church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, the second being the church of Nativity of the Mother of God, and the third being at the cemetery.”

In the mid-19th century, an architectural ensemble began to form around St Nicholas Church. In 1858, the Russian Emperor Alexander II approved the project draft for the construction of the bell tower at St Nicholas Church. The three-tiered stone bell tower in honor of John the Baptist was erected in 1861 with the help of the landowner and church warden Pyotr Smolyaninov. He, his relatives and builders of the church were later buried in the crypt of in basement of the bell tower. The temple itself was reconstructed in 1886, 1910 and 1913.

In 1983, the church was placed on the register of the local authorities responsible for the protection of cultural heritage, but the records for it inclusion in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine were never drawn up.

In 1900, the building of the church and the parish school was erected.

During the Soviet period, St. Nicolas Church remained open. This is the only church in Bakhmut that received parishioners throughout its existence. It was forced to close down in the summer of 2022.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the dean of the church was Sergey Dvoryanov, a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate. During his service, the townspeople brought to the church ancient icons, books and church utensils, which had been kept in families for years. Among the items donated to the church by the townspeople, there were quite valuable things related to the history of local families. Unfortunately, no vestry inventory was kept in the church.

In 2012, Father Sergey Dvoryanov started the construction of a Sunday school on the territory of the church. During the construction, the ancient fence surrounding the church, which was built at the end of the 19th century, was almost completely destroyed. Construction work was carried out without approval from the regional department of culture and the city department of architecture.

In 2014, the construction was completed. Opposite the southeastern facade of the church, a two-storey extension was built, which eventually caused the foundation of the church to sink.

Russian troops shelled the church with mortars for the first time on September 26, 2022. The roof of the belfry and windons were damaged, the facade was slashed by shell splinters. On July 11, 2023, the only historical wooden church of Donetsk region completely burned down. At that time, Bakhmut was already occupied by Russian troops. It is not known whether items from the sacristy had been evacuated before the fire broke out.