The 7000-square-foot Museum is located in the Garden's Victorian District. The Georgian structure was built at Shaw’s direction according to plans by prominent St. Louis architect George I. Barnett, for the purpose of housing the Garden’s original library, herbarium and natural history specimens.
In the years after Henry Shaw's death on August 25, 1889, the original library and museum served a number of functions. Most uniquely, immediately following Shaw’s death, the Museum was the venue where his body lay in state for public viewing. In subsequent years, it has also served as a research lab and a time-lapse photography lab. It has housed offices, a restaurant, board and staff meeting rooms and computer class rooms, and it served as the Garden’s main auditorium until the construction of the Lehmann Building in 1972.