The Shopkeeper's House was built by the master shoemaker Carl Degerman. He moved with his family to the Shopkeeper's House lot before the city fire of 1840, in which they lost their home at the time. After the fire, Degerman built the current Shopkeeper's House, which was completed in 1841 as a ten-room residential and commercial building. From the beginning, the house and its courtyard have been inhabited by tenants from various trades, ranging from craftsmen to fire chiefs.

After the master shoemaker, the house and its courtyard had several owners, two of whom practiced copper industry on the lot between the 1850s and the 1890s. During the time of master coppersmith Grönberg, a two-story forge building was likely constructed in the late 1860s. Johan Lindfors, an enterprising man trained as a goldsmith, established a copper factory and a paint shop on the lot. Under his ownership, the courtyard attained its current enclosed shape as several utility and storage buildings were constructed alongside the main building.

In 1905, the property was acquired by merchant Muravjeff after Hilda Wilhelmiina Sjöström, who had inherited the house, relinquished it. Muravjeff ran a shop in the house until his death in 1933. Muravjeff's widow and daughter did not continue the business but rented the shop space to others. The last known shopkeeper was Kerttu Soikkeli, who ran a shop from the 1940s until the mid-1960s. After her, a shoemaker still worked in the house.

In 1977, the house and its courtyard passed into the ownership of the city of Hamina after the death of the last member of the Muravjeff family, Ksenia. A museum was established the following year. The Shopkeeper's House and the atmospheric courtyard buildings showcase the Finnish-Russian merchant heritage and the history of urban living in the 19th century.