The initiator of laying the foundation of the Imperial Orphanage as a closed educational institution for orphans and street children was one of the prominent figures of the Russian education, Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy. This significant event took place in 1764.

The building of the Imperial Orphanage was once the largest in the Russian capital and was built over three centuries. Two square blocks of the building were erected in the XVIII century by the Moscow architect and civil engineer Karl Ivanovich Blank. For hundreds of years, prominent architects participated in the construction: Swiss Domenico Gilardi, master of Moscow Empire style Afanasy Grigorievich Grigoriev, one of the ideologists of early historicism Mikhail Dorimedontovich Bykovsky.

The construction was completed only in the 20th century under the leadership of architect and urban planner Joseph Ignatievich Loveiko. The master's merit also lies in the fact that he prevented the Soviet authorities from demolishing the building and building another faceless high-rise in its place.