“The first attempt to create a museum exposition about the writer — the so-called Ivan Franko Room at the NTSH — was made in the mid-20s of the twentieth century. According to contemporaries, this room-museum was supposed to recreate the interior of Franko's office. According to the letter of Franko's son Taras to the Scientific Society named after him. VOL. Shevchenko from November 18, 1923, already since then, the family sold things from the writer's office to the Society. And in 1926, the chairman of NTSH Kyrylo Studynskyi appealed on behalf of the society to the public and Ukrainian institutions with a call to collect and send various memorials about Ivan Franko. So valuable relics were piled up in the NTSH: autographs, letters, documents, photographs, books, personal belongings of the writer.

‍

The official opening of the room never took place: we do not find information about this in the press of that time. Instead, we read in the “Chronicle of the Shevchenko Scientific Society 1926—1930” about “Ivan Franko's corner”, where “a library, archive and other monuments (furniture, etc.) for the deceased Writer were placed”. We have an idea of this “corner” from several saved photos.

‍

Since then, there have been many serious and helpful conversations about the need to create a Frank Museum in Lviv in his own home, like similar institutions existing in the world. After all, this would be a worthy response to the desire of the writer himself that after his death here, in the villa where he lived his last 14 years, “some kind of humanitarian or cultural Ukrainian institution should be housed.” However, this idea was realized in 1940 thanks to the active efforts of the youngest son of the writer - Peter. In the new political realities, after a long bureaucratic procedure, on October 10, 1940, the Ivan Franko Museum was finally inaugurated in Lviv. The collection collected in NTSH became the basis of his funds.

‍

It was Peter Franco who became the first director of the newly created Museum. However, with the new stage of World War II, when the front moved sharply to the east and German troops crossed the borders of Soviet Ukraine, the NKVD authorities forcibly removed him from Lviv, and to this day it is unknown where his grave is.

‍

Until the end of World War II, the museum was not operational. Damaged during the war, the building was repaired, the exposition was restored, and on July 27, 1945, the second grand opening of the Museum took place. Since then, the exposition has not undergone any changes until 1986, when the restoration of Ivan Franko's villa was carried out for the first time. At the same time, the interior of five rooms of the first floor was restored, according to the memories of Anna Franko-Klyuchko, the daughter of the writer, and a memorial exposition was created to replace the chronological-thematic one. Expositions in two rooms on the second floor were opened in 2006. And at the end of 2018, the exposition “Kitchen of the Frank House” was created, and two years later “Pyvnytsia”.

‍

In 1991, the building on the street was transferred to the Ivan Franko Literary and Memorial Museum in Lviv. Ivan Franko, 150. It is a two-story villa in the style of modern classicism, which was built in 1923—1925 for the Polish entrepreneur Antony Uviera. It houses the administrative premises, the offices of scientists, the main and book funds of the museum. By the 150th birthday of Ivan Franko, in 2006, a literary exposition was created here, which tells about the writer's creative path, his scientific and socio-political activities. Today, work continues on the renovation of the exposition in the Villa Uviera — the House of Muses, and various cultural events take place in the halls.

‍

On August 23, 2011, the museum received national status.
Since 2017, there have been rapid changes in the philosophy of the Museum as a cultural institution. Today, Frank House appears as a place of strength, a place of spirit, a vibrant active cultural space open to different communities. In this way, the Museum team essentially continues the traditions laid down by the first director, Petro Franco, who conceived this house not as a quiet place to preserve the memory of his great father, but as a place of discovery, a place of education and creativity, a meeting place for interesting and creative personalities. Here there is always a dialogue between generations, between people of different spheres and interests, thoughts are always pulsating and various emotions are raging. For Frank's house is a space where memory does not fall in dust, but comes alive in thought, action, word...”

‍