In December 1999, entrepreneur Andrey Vorobyov, who opened an antique shop in 1995, purchased a burned-out two-story building from the 19th century in the center of Pereslavl on Sovetskaya Street, house 11, for 1,500 dollars. Previously, communal apartments were located here. Engineer Boris Kuzmich Abrashkin, a relative of Vorobyov and the technical director of the Iron Museum, received permission to renovate the building and privatize the land.

The renovation lasted three years and required an investment of 30,000 dollars. Almost the same amount was spent on searching for and acquiring irons. The Iron Museum opened on June 29, 2002. Most of the irons were purchased at a Moscow vernissage in Izmailovo, while some interesting specimens were found at a dump.

In 2002 and 2004, visiting the museum was free. In 2006, entry remained free, but visitors could leave money in a special box. Later, entry became paid.

The main income, about 70 percent, comes from selling irons from its stock at prices ranging from 100 to 10,000 rubles. Two-thirds of the income comes from the summer tourist season from May to September. After one and a half to two years of operation, the museum fully recouped its costs and began to generate profit. During the summer, the museum's revenue amounts to 70,000 to 100,000 rubles per month.

The museum is visited by 1,200 people monthly. 95 percent of visitors are Muscovites, while the rest come from major cities in Russia and other countries. In July 2003, Andrey Vorobyov and Dmitry Nikishkin opened the Teapot Museum in the village of Veskovo near Pereslavl, using the income from the Iron Museum. In summer, the income from the Teapot Museum is 50,000 to 70,000 rubles per month. For Vorobyov, these two private museums are the main source of income, not just a hobby.

The collection of the Iron Museum is not related to the city of Pereslavl and includes over 200 irons.

On the first floor of the museum, there is a souvenir shop, while the second floor displays the irons. The central shelf is dedicated to seven main types of irons: heating, with a cast iron heating core, coal, steam, alcohol, gas, and electric irons.

Several times a year, the museum hosts the Iron Festival, where visitors can try out the irons in action. Museologist and Doctor of Arts Alexey Valentinovich Lebedev believes that the Iron Museum resembles a shop more than a museum, where the word 'museum' is used for promotional purposes.