The People's House was founded in 1849 by the Main Russian Council at the initiative of priest Lev Treshchakovsky. The Austrian government allocated a plot for construction on the site of the building of Lviv University, which was destroyed in 1848, next to the Trinitarian Church. Architects V. Schmidt and S. Havryshkevych built the building in 1851 and 1864 with funds raised by the Rusyn population of the region.

The People's House housed the Galician-Russian Matica, founded in 1848, which engaged in cultural and educational activities. After the retreat of Russian troops from Galicia in 1915 and the evacuation of some Galician Russophiles, part of the library was taken to Russia. The "Herald of the People's House" was published monthly in 1883 and 1914, and after 1921, periodically.

With the onset of the war between Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1914, the previous leadership of the People's House was removed, and government commissioner Adam Smulka was appointed, who led until May 1918. At the request of pro-Austrian figure Kost Levitsky, in 1916 the Austrian governorate created a collegial body, a curatorial committee, consisting of 12 curators who were Ukrainophiles, headed by Kost Levitsky and Alexander Barvinsky. In 1918, the headquarters of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was located here, and on October 19, 1918, the West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed in the large hall under the leadership of Yevhen Petrushevych. On November 8, 1919, a valuable numismatic collection was looted. In 1921, the Polish authorities changed the leadership of the People's House, and it came under the control of government commissioners, preventing members of the Galician-Russian movement from managing it. During the interwar period, the activities of the People's House were limited to museum and archival functions. It included a library (which in 1924 had about 120,000 books, including 5,000 manuscripts and documents), archaeological-historical and natural science museums, which were located at 14 Kurkova Street (now Lysenka Street). The building also housed a Ukrainian bookstore and a book antiquarian.

For some time, the "Russian Conversation" theater was located here, a gymnasium with instruction in the Ukrainian language, and from 1930, after the reconstruction of the ballrooms by architect Adam Opolsky, the Lviv "Theater of Variety" operated.

After 1939, the People's House was closed, and its book collections were transferred to the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and reorganized Lviv museums. From 1939, the building housed the House of the Red Army, then the district House of Officers, where cultural events were held. After the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, it housed the House of Officers of the Western Operational Command, and in the early 21st century, a "Kinopalats" also appeared.