Plymouth’s first museum was a part of the Plymouth Institution’s Athenaeum building in George Street, next to the Theatre Royal.
In 1898 the Corporation started their own museum at Beaumont House and finally, in 1910, the present building, pictured above was opened in Tavistock Road.
In 1887 the Corporation resolved to create a museum and art gallery to mark the Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s accession to the Throne. A site was donated by the Town at the Old Town Hills in Tavistock Road and when in 1890 they were able to purchase Beaumont House and grounds off the trustees of the late Reverend Thomas Archer Bewes, they used the House as a temporary place of storage for artifacts and paintings.
The first public exhibition was opened on Monday August 1st 1898, when just over one hundred pictures of mainly local scenes, were put on display.
Although a part of the same block of buildings, the Library and the Museum and Art Gallery were treated separately when the foundation stones were laid on October 16th 1907. That for the Museum and Art Gallery was laid by Alderman T Brock, JP, chairman of the Museum and Art Gallery Committee.
The building was designed by Messrs Thornley & Rooke of Plymouth and the contractors, Messrs Pethick Brothers Ltd, also of Plymouth, started work on the site on December 9th 1907. The final cost of the work is said to have been £13,313 9s 9d for the Museum.
Jofreebird's Plymouth DP 