The Museum of merchant life in Kozmodemyansk is located in an old mansion, which is part of the estate, built in 1897, the city merchant, lumberman Shishkina A. I.

The Museum building, which was built as a residential house, later used as the office and was known as "the Trading house of brothers Gubanich". The three-storey building with a mezzanine from 1918 to 1970 was a district Committee of the RCP(b), from 1970 to 1980 – the Komsomol, from 1980 to 1995, the mansion was given ZHKO. In 1995 the building together with the manor passed to the Museum in 2001 called the Museum of merchant life.

A mansion with a rich facade openwork carving has several floors: ground floor built of stone, floor with Grand staircase and rooms, the third floor is a mezzanine, the mezzanine rooms. Throughout the building are preserved oak flooring, stucco ceilings, tiled stoves and the stunning staircase with turned bassami. The room is decorated with carved furniture made Kozmodemyansk craftsmen. In the Museum are antique sideboards, tables, chairs and slides with the dishes of the time. In addition to household items includes books, paintings, musical instruments and much more that gives an idea of the life of the merchants of the nineteenth century.

A Museum about the merchant's life, known as monument merchants who played an important role in the development of the city and transformed the city into one of the largest centres of the timber trade in Russia in the nineteenth century.