"The Brotherhood Society for Providing the Poor with Housing in Moscow" was established in the mid-19th century. There were over 50 houses of this society in Moscow, located on Plyushchikha, Mokhovaya, Grusinskaya Val, Hospital Street, Electric Street, and Protopopov Lane.

Protopopov Lane runs through two districts of Moscow: Meshchansky and Krasnoselsky, connecting Mira Avenue and Kalanchovskaya Street. The beginning of the lane is situated between the exits of the "Prospekt Mira" metro station. Nearby is the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University, which originated from the pharmacy garden where medicinal plants were grown. Initially, the lane was called Apothecary Lane, but during the Soviet era, it was renamed Godless due to associations with the church.

This area housed many charitable institutions, such as the Nabilkovskaya almshouse, the Children's Olginskaya Hospital, and the Mariinsky-Usachevsky almshouse. Among them, eleven identical wooden buildings appeared, where the Brotherhood Society's cheap apartments were located.

The society was founded by a group of aristocratic women led by Princess Nadezhda Borisovna Trubetskaya. The society was created in response to the flooding of the Moscow River after the snowy winter of 1859/60. The women rented a house at Kaluga Gates for the affected families. Seeing the need for such assistance, they decided to engage in this work on a permanent basis. Soon, the society's charter was approved, and N.B. Trubetskaya became its chairwoman. By the end of the 1860s, the society had built houses with cheap apartments in various districts of Moscow. The houses also included barrack-style rooms, dining halls, and churches. Housing was rented for a symbolic fee and provided to those in need, but not to the destitute.

Due to the large number of needy individuals, the society's commission carefully selected tenants. It was required to provide documents confirming the candidate's respectability and reliability. Candidates had to belong to the merchant class, artisans, clergy, or other social groups, be financially unstable, under thirty years old, reside in Moscow, practice Orthodoxy, and provide references from a spiritual advisor and the police. Apartments were provided for a term of up to five years, and for widows with children, until the children reached adulthood. Eviction could occur for drunkenness, keeping pets, dirt in the apartment, or providing lodging to outsiders.

The largest complex of the society's buildings was constructed on Protopopov Lane. The buildings were arranged parallel to each other. Due to the increasing demand for cheap apartments, it was decided by the end of the 19th century to replace the wooden structures with stone ones. Reconstruction began in the mid-1890s and continued until the 1910s. Architects I.P. Mashkov, A.K. Lankau, and N.K. Kurdyukov designed and built the new buildings. The most notable among them are the Polyakov House of Cheap Apartments (1896), the Komarovsky House (1899), the Gorbovsky House (1901), and the house named after Emperor Nicholas II (1904-1911).

Among all the buildings, the Spiridonov Almshouse stands out, built with funds from patron M.V. Sokol in the neo-Russian style. The building housed a chapel with a tent-shaped tower. The house was decorated with tiles made by Polenov, Vrubel, and Yakunchikova.

After the 1917 revolution, residential apartments remained in the society's houses, some of which became communal. In the second half of the 20th century, after reconstruction, some buildings housed divisions of city courts. The buildings are under state protection. Currently, the Spiridonov Almshouse is undergoing major repairs.