The building was ceremoniously laid on June 22, 2000, by the mayor of Orenburg G.P. Donkovtsev and the Honorary Citizen of the city Yu.D. Garankin, and its opening took place on August 15, 2003. The House of Memory is located on Victory Avenue and is conceived as a continuation of the Eternal Flame memorial. Architect S.E. Smirnov designed the building in the form of a chapel. The main goal of the House of Memory is to immortalize the names of Orenburg residents. The computer database contains the names of all those buried since 1900. In the central hall, one can find table albums covering the period from 1924 to 1955.

Since 1999, the city administration has been publishing the "Book of Memory," which lists the names of all Orenburg residents who died in the past year. The second part of the book is dedicated to citizens whose activities deserve special attention. In the House of Memory, one can familiarize themselves with these books or purchase them. The names of internationalist soldiers who died in Afghanistan, liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster, police officers who died in the line of duty in Orenburg, as well as Orenburg residents who gave their lives during service in the Caucasus, are immortalized on marble plaques.