Odessa Museum of History and Local History is located in the very center of Odessa, next to the old City Garden, on a small cozy street called Havannaya. And indeed, if from Deribasovskaya and Preobrazhenskaya it was necessary to get to the port with cargo, the easiest way to do it was to turn to Gavannaya: after a couple of blocks, gently and smoothly crossing the descent and ducking under a kind of bridge-viaduct, the street leads directly to the harbor. Maybe that’s why in 1876 on Gavannaya Street, designed by the famous architect F. Gonsiorovsky, a palace-type house was built for one of the major representatives of the industrial and commercial elite of that time — Alexander Yakovlevich Novikov, grandson of the famous Odessa merchant of the first guild Ilya Novikov, owner of the rope factory founded in 1806. This building, which is now an architectural monument of the second half of the XIX century, houses the Odessa Museum of Local History.
In the architecture of the two-storey mansion, as in the previous creations of Felix Gonsiorovsky, the spirit of stylization prevails. In this case — based on the use of late Renaissance forms, with a variation of patterns and motifs drawn from the architectural heritage of Italy. The building organically blended into the general layout of the street and rightfully became one of the architectural creations that create a unique image of the city.
Until 1899, the mansion at 4 Gavannaya Street was known in Odessa as «Novikov’s House» (by the way, the Novikovs were considered not only large industrialists, but also homeowners). At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was purchased by the city authorities.
In 1907 the house was leased to the Odessa Commercial Assembly. After October, 1917 the owners changed frequently. 
The front halls were used for various club institutions, departmental libraries, regional party courses. Semi-basement rooms and part of the halls of the first floor were used as housing.
For the first time museum exposition was placed here in August 1944: it was the exhibition «Heroic Defense of Odessa», on the basis of which later created the Republican Museum of Odessa Defense.
And on May 6, 1956, the Odessa State Museum of History and Local Lore opened its doors to its first visitors. It was formed on the basis of the Museum of Defense of Odessa and Odessa Regional Museum of Local Lore. 
Documents, printed publications, items of applied and fine arts, numismatic collections, weapons of XVII — XIX centuries, related to the history of the city and region and once included in the collections of the Museum of Odessa Society of History and Antiquities, Museum of Books, Museum of Old Odessa and some others, became a part of its funds.
In 1983 the museum was closed for major repairs, which lasted for eleven years. As a result, the palace interiors of the mansion were restored in their original form by the Odessa Art and Restoration Workshops. The inner courtyard of the museum was transformed, literally revived, and in fact it is a kind of miniature park with a graceful fountain «Grotto». Acacia, chestnut, linden and, somewhat unexpected for these places, Crimean pine and evergreen boxwood, traditional for Odessa, give it a special chamber and coziness.
Then the fragments of the famous Monument to commemorate the founding of Odessa, installed in 1900 at the very beginning of Ekaterininskaya Street, dismantled twenty years later, but miraculously saved from total destruction, acquired a completely different sound. The surviving bronze figures of Catherine II and her companions — creations of sculptors B. Eduardsa, A. Popov and architect Y. Dmitrenko — complemented the architectural solution of the entire museum complex. Currently, the museum has stationary expositions «Old Odessa», «Odessa and the region in the Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945» and temporary ones: «Multinational Odessa Region», «Twin Cities of Odessa», «Culture of Odessa».
As the materials are accumulated in the course of research and collection work, other expositions will be created, revealing the most diverse aspects of life of our city and region.