The construction of the Estate House began in 1794 after a devastating fire that occurred the year before. On the land cleared from the fire in the Streletskaya Sloboda, between Buyanova (Pomorskaya) and Smirnaya (Theatrical Lane) streets, merchants Semyon Bolotny and Mikhail Chernyshev erected stone two-story houses. These buildings had a common main facade, divided by a fire wall, and differed not only in facades but also in the level of ceilings. In 1894, the houses had a new owner, Pavla Mikhailovna Shingareva, who began to unite them into a single structure. The building acquired its current appearance in the early 20th century when it became the property of Ekaterina Kirillovna Plotnikova.

In the early 1920s, the building was nationalized from the Shingarev-Plotnikov merchants and transferred to Soviet institutions. It housed the October District Executive Committee of the city of Arkhangelsk.

In 1994, the building was handed over to the Arkhangelsk Museum of Fine Arts, which has since been engaged in its restoration and museification as an architectural monument of the 18th century, "Estate House of E. K. Plotnikova."

In 2000, an exhibition titled "Secrets of the Old House" opened in the still unrenovated building, marking the beginning of exhibitions dedicated to urban artistic culture.

On June 25, 2010, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Arkhangelsk Museum of Fine Arts, a new exhibition of Russian art from the 18th and early 20th centuries opened in the restored halls of the estate house. Paintings by Russian artists were displayed in a suite of halls with parquet floors, tiled stoves, painted ceilings, and stucco decorations, creating an atmosphere of a bygone era.

The pride of the exhibition includes paintings by masters such as Karl Bryullov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Fyodor Rokotov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Alexei Venetsianov, Karl Lemokh, Ivan Kramskoy, Mikhail Nesterov, Valentin Serov, and others.

On the first floor, there is an exhibition hall where exhibitions dedicated to urban artistic culture take place. They introduce visitors to the culture and everyday life of old Arkhangelsk, telling the story of the city through the fates of its residents.