The main building of the Mühlhausen museums was originally built between 1868 and 1870 as a grammar school in the neo-Renaissance style. Since the establishment of a local history museum in 1928, the building on Lindenbühl has been used primarily as a museum. After extensive modernization in 2013, the building reopened as a cultural history museum.

The redesigned permanent exhibitions show the most important pieces from the collection on the prehistory and early history of the Unstrut-Hainich district, the history of the town and Thuringian art of the 20th century.