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.
Taghiyev sent his daughters Leyla and Sara to study at the prestigious Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in Saint Petersburg, from where his second wife Sona had once graduated.