An imposing building of the last period of eclecticism at 17 Demokritou Street, was erected to serve as a school at the expense of the expatriate benefactor Nestor Tsanaklis. Tsanakleio housed the General Administration of Thrace (1922-1954) and the Prefecture of Rodopi (1954-1972). Later and until recently it housed the Rectorate of the Democritus University of Thrace.

It is known that Nestor Tsanaklis, a great tobacco merchant from Komotini, and an expatriate in Cairo, financed the construction of an Urban School at the beginning of the 20th century. The building was inaugurated in 1907. It was named Tsanakleios School in honor of the city's benefactor, who also sent the sum of 200 golden pounds to pay the salaries of the teachers of the Greek community for several years. For the building of the Greek Urban School, the then Ottoman Administration granted him the site of the then Municipal Garden, in front of the city's river, in the heart of the Greek Quarter.

The building was built according to the principles of eclecticism, the dominant architectural view of the 19th century. The school did not have time to function as the donor himself would have wished. However, it housed successively the Orphanage (1919), the General Administration of Thrace (1922-1945), the Prefecture of Rodopi (1945-1972), and the Rectorate of the Democritus University of Thrace until 2000.