At the municipal council meeting on October 5, 1879, it was decided to set up a museum in Melk, and in May 1880 some showcases were set up in the town hall and "equipped with the existing antique objects and the few existing old writings"[1]. Under the direction of the pharmacist Franz Xaver Linde (1937-1903), the museum gained in importance. As early as 1903, a printed "list of items in the municipal museum in Melk" was published, in which 420 items were described on 22 pages.
After Linde's death in 1903, his son Franz X. Linde jun. (1867–1929) joined the museum and began an active prehistoric collection, which experienced a significant expansion with the objects found by the first rector of the Melk Seminary, Josef Aichinger. Since the town hall could no longer hold the exhibits, the museum moved to a building next to the pharmacy. Several Roman stones on the facade of the house are reminiscent of this time. After the pharmacy occupied the museum rooms in 1926, the inventory was temporarily deposited in Melk Abbey and reinstalled in the brewery in 1931. During this time, numerous archaeological excavations were carried out in the Melk area with the Federal Monuments Office, of which those at Höpfenbühel and in the Dober sand pit should be highlighted. The museum inventory had not suffered any losses during the war.
On July 13, 1946, it was reopened in the presence of the Russian commander Chromoff in the Brauhaus. Barely a year later, the museum once again had to be temporarily stored in Melk Abbey. As a result, Franz Hutter (1897–1975) took over the museum. He succeeded in adapting suitable premises for the museum in the Fürnbergisches Posthaus. On November 21, 1959, the "Melker Heimatmuseum" was officially opened by Governor Steinböck. Between 1973 and 1984, the museum did not have the appropriate care and management, so that the holdings fell into considerable neglect.