In 1866, Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), who headed the Russian Spiritual Mission, acquired two plots of land in the Arab village of Beit Jala in the name of the dragoman Yakub Khalebi.

On the Dahra plot, covering 1.32 hectares, a two-story building for a girls' school was constructed with funding from Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

This school became the new location for the first Russian school for Arab children, founded in Jerusalem in 1858 by educator E. F. Bodrova. The relocation of the school was due to dissatisfaction with the Greek Patriarchate.

Later, the school was transformed into the first women's gymnasium in the Middle East.

Next to the school, with funds from O. E. Putiatina, daughter of Admiral and diplomat E. V. Putiatin, an outpatient clinic was built.

In 1886, the plot along with the school was donated to the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (IOPS). In 1890, the IOPS opened a women's teacher seminary there.

The seminary trained teachers for IOPS primary schools in Palestine and Syria, which by 1900 numbered about 70, with approximately 10,000 students.

In 1896, the plot was transferred to the Russian government.

With the onset of World War I, the head of the seminary, M. N. Trapeznikova, was asked to close the seminary and school, which was done. However, she soon returned to Beit Jala despite the dangers. Along with her returned the nurse E. M. Voronyanskaya, and later the teacher M. I. Silina.

In the summer of 1915, Turkish troops entered Beit Jala, and all buildings, including the school, seminary, and outpatient clinic, were requisitioned and converted into soldiers' barracks and a hospital.

From 1917, the plot was under the administration of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).

In 1978, it was sold to the municipal authorities of Bethlehem. The buildings of the seminary and school have not survived, while the outpatient clinic was transformed into a café-museum dedicated to the history of Beit Jala in the 19th and 20th centuries.