The Saint Petersburg Foundling House was a precursor of the modern Herzen University.
As a son-in-law of Ivan Betskoy and a secretary to Prince Potemkin, he became one of the earliest administrators of the New Russia.
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The building was commissioned from Giacomo Quarenghi by the Society for Education of Noble Maidens and constructed in 1806–08 to house the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, established at the urging of Ivan Betskoy and in accordance with a decree of Catherine II (the Great) in 1764, borrowing its name from the nearby Smolny Convent.