The building which houses the museum used to be occupied by the headquarters of the Maritime Customs. It was part of the complex of buildings of the Vasilyevsky Island. The Malaya Neva Embankment in this place is called the Makarov Embankment in honor of the Russian admiral Makarov who was born in Nikolaev in the middle of the 19th century and died during the Russian-Japanese war in 1904 near Port Arthur. Translated with Google Translate