In the 17th century, the estate of the chamberlain I. M. Verderevsky was located near the banks of the Neglinka River, which included two houses on the street. In the mid-18th century, it passed to Count P. B. Sheremetev, and by the early 19th century, it became the property of Major General and Knight of St. George E. I. Blankenagel. During the Catherine era, Yegor Ivanovich Blankenagel oversaw the works on the river through the Neglinnaya Canal and was a member of the commission for water works in Moscow.

The stone house of Blankenagel survived the fire of 1812, and after his death the following year, it passed to his stepdaughter Alexandra Vasilievna, the wife of the well-known scientist and public figure Vasily Nazarovich Karazin.

From 1831, the building housed a branch of the oldest banking house I. V. Junker from St. Petersburg. In the 1870s, "I. V. Junker" acquired the neighboring house No. 16 on Kuznetsky Most and moved there. For a long time, an art shop of the Datsyaro firm was also located here.

In 1873, the former Karazin house was purchased by merchant Konstantin Semyonovich Popov, who was the first to establish tea plantations in the Caucasus. Four years later, he completely rebuilt the house, erecting a four-story building in eclectic style according to the design of academician of architecture Alexander Ivanovich Rezанов, decorated with stucco in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. The construction works were supervised by architect S. V. Dmitriev. In those years, Rezанов also built a mansion for Popov on Smolensky Boulevard, which was later reconstructed for M. K. Morozova.

The "Passage of Popov" on Kuznetsky Most housed shops of well-known firms and a photographic salon of A. A. Eikhenvald. In addition to retail spaces, there were demonstration halls where art exhibitions and exhibitions of decorative tropical plants took place. The upper floors were occupied by residential apartments.

The "Passage of Popov" played an important role in the telephonization of Moscow. Here, on July 13, 1882, Alexander Bell's telephone company opened the first manual telephone exchange in Moscow with 800 numbers.

In 1899, house No. 12 was acquired by bankers, brothers Ivan, Isaac, Nikolai, and Afanasy Isaakovich Jamgarov, who already owned another house on Kuznetsky Most, at the corner with Rozhdestvenka. The passage became known as the "Passage of the Jamgarov Brothers."

In the early 20th century, the first floor housed a café and confectionery of the trading house "Siou S. and Co" with Art Nouveau-style interiors.

After the revolution, various state institutions and several scientific medical societies were located in the building.

Currently, the former Passage of Popov and the Jamgarovs houses the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of Russia.

The building is protected by the state as a cultural heritage site of regional significance.