In the corner room on the second floor of this house, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born on March 25, 1812, the illegitimate son of Moscow nobleman Ivan Alexeevich Yakovlev and Henrietta Wilhelmina Louise Haag from Stuttgart. He lived here until September of the same year and later visited his cousin Alexei Alexandrovich Yakovlev.

The current Herzen's House is based on chambers from the first half of the 18th century. At that time, the site of Tverskoy Boulevard was occupied by the fortress wall of the White City, and the facade of the chambers faced Bolshaya Bronaya Street. In 1796, Tverskoy Boulevard was created, and the house was rebuilt in the classical style, turning the facade towards the boulevard. Between 1806 and 1812, the property was acquired by Alexander Alexeevich Yakovlev, Herzen's uncle.

In the 1840s, the house was rented by Dmitry Nikolaevich Sverbeyev. On Fridays from October to spring, famous Muscovites and guests of the city, primarily writers, would come to visit him. Among them were Herzen, Chaadayev, Gogol, Boratynsky, and the Khomyakovs, who discussed news and shaped public opinion here.

Until 1917, the house housed tenants such as the A. Gyubner Partnership, the office of A. I. Butikov, and the Provincial Excise Administration. Until the 1930s, it was home to the A. and I. Granat and Co. Partnership, which published the famous Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary.

In 1920, the All-Russian Union of Writers and various literary associations settled in the house. It was then that the name "Herzen's House" appeared, and a memorial plaque with the writer's profile, created by N. A. Andreev, was installed on the estate.

This house became the prototype of Griboedov's house in M.A. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita." The literary organizations that were here in the 1920s were depicted in the novel as the "MASSOLIT" association led by Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz. The house also housed a restaurant that became the prototype of the Griboedov restaurant, where the events of the novel unfold.

Fortunately, the real house was not damaged by fire and has survived to this day. In December 1933, the Literary Institute opened here, where famous writers such as M. Sholokhov, K. Paustovsky, and others taught and studied. Here, Andrei Platonov, V. Ivanov, M. Prishvin, and O. Mandelstam temporarily lived, with Mandelstam residing in the right wing of the house in 1932-33. In the spring of 1932, the Pasternaks also moved here, receiving a small apartment thanks to the help of writers I.V. Evdokimov and V.V. Sletov.

In 1959, a monument to A. I. Herzen was installed on the estate, created by sculptor M. I. Milberger and architect K. M. Sapegin.