The museum was opened in 1980 in a house in which the family of Petro Shmidt, the head of the city and the port lived from 1876 to 1886. Here, the childhood years of his son, future lieutenant Petro Schmidt, who studied nearby in the Berdyansk classical male gymnasium, passed.
The halls of the first floor of the museum are dedicated to the Schmidt family, as well as the life and work of Lieutenant Petro Schmidt. The second floor of the museum recreates the atmosphere of the ХІХ century. – the living room, father's cabinet, children's room and a dining room.
