The area in the west of Moscow, where Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street is now located, was long considered unsuitable for living. Three rivers flowed here: Presnya, Bubna, and Kabanikha, and their ponds have partially survived on the territory of the Moscow Zoo. Due to frequent floods and spring high waters, the lands were often inundated. Since the 12th century, the old Volotskaya road to Novgorod passed through here. By the end of the 16th century, this territory was outside the Earthen City, and in the 17th century it became royal property. In 1681, Tsar Fyodor Alexeyevich established his summer residence here, the village of Voskresenskoye.

In 1729, Peter II gifted the village to the Georgian king Vakhtang VI, who built a palace on the banks of the large Presnensky pond. His retinue settled in the vicinity, forming the Gruzinskaya sloboda, which is reflected in the names of modern streets and alleys.

The first archival plan of the property at 12 Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street dates back to 1832. It belonged to merchant of the 3rd guild Vasily Manuilov. The small estate on the banks of the Presnensky pond included a wooden main house, a wing, a large garden, and outbuildings.

After Manuilov, the estate changed several owners, but significant changes in construction did not occur until 1897, when the Perfilyev brothers sold it to the Moscow Imperial University. The university decided to build a student dormitory on this site. Construction took place from 1897 to 1898, based on the design of the famous architect Konstantin Mikhailovich Bykovsky, the author of the Moscow University complex on Mokhovaya. Supervision of the construction was carried out by his assistant, architect-restorer Zinovy Ivanovich Ivanov.

The dormitory consisted of two buildings (now houses 10 and 12), located at an angle to each other. The second building was constructed later, in 1903, by architect R. I. Klein, who also participated in the creation of the university clinic complex at Devichye Pole. The facades of both buildings, although differing in details, are generally similar. The main entrance of the modern house 12 is highlighted by a risalit and rusticated pilasters. There are balconies with metal railings on the southern and eastern facades. The windows are adorned with profiled lintels and variously shaped and patterned architraves. The building is surrounded by a profiled cornice with a belt of brackets, and the facade is decorated with stucco rosettes and sculptural compositions.

In 1901, the dormitory housed the famous theologian and philosopher, then a student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University, priest Pavel Florensky.

In 1919, the building housed the 151st combined evacuation hospital for Red Army soldiers. In the autumn of the same year, it was visited by V. I. Lenin. In 1937, the former dormitory was divided into two sections: 10 and 12.

The building was placed under state protection in 1971 in connection with the 100th anniversary of V. I. Lenin's birth.