In the building that later housed the Catherine Teacher Training Institute, primary classes of the cadet corps were located until 1869. During this period, notable figures such as the inventor of the incandescent lamp A.N. Ladygin, who lived in Tambov as a child, and the future creator of the 1891 three-line rifle, General S.I. Mosin, studied here. In the 1870s, Prince E.D. Naryshkin established the Catherine Teacher Training Institute in this building, which became a leading educational institution in the Tambov province. It trained teachers for various schools and institutions in the region. Education at the institute was considered prestigious, as its graduates could easily continue their studies at universities. The selection of students was strict, and many embodied the progressive ideas of the Russian intelligentsia. The history of the region includes accounts of the institute's students participating in the revolutionary events of 1905. A future writer, S.N. Sergeev-Tsensky, studied at the primary school associated with the institute, as commemorated by a memorial plaque.

After the October Revolution, various administrative institutions were successively located in the building, the last of which was the Department of Public Education. In the early 1930s, the building was destroyed by fire, and soon after, construction began on a new two-story school building based on a typical design of that time.

From the late 1930s until 1967, it housed Secondary School No. 17. During the war, the building served as an evacuation hospital No. 5353, as indicated by a memorial plaque established for the 50th anniversary of Victory. After the school, a training and production complex was opened here to prepare graduates of secondary schools in the Oktyabrsky district for working professions, which closed due to a decline in demand for skilled trades. Since 1993, the building housed the first author school in the region, founded by the honored teacher of Russia N.A. Ryabov. Currently, it is home to one of the buildings of Lyceum No. 29.