The architect built the palace in the late Italian Renaissance style. After the revolution, the building housed a club, a library, the party courses etc. The museum has been opened in 1956. It exhibits the documents, prints, objects of fine and applied arts, numismatic collections, XVII-XIX centuries weapon from the collections of the Museum of Odesa Society of History and Antiquities, the Book Museum, the Museum of Ancient Odesa and others. A courtyard of the museum with a miniature park and a graceful fountain "Grotto" are of particular interest. There are fragments of the monument to the founders of Odesa, established in 1900 at the Katerynynska street, and destroyed during the Soviets.