The Museum started functioning in 1990 and is housed in a building of unique architectural beauty: the mansion once belonging to scholar, doctor and politician Konstantinos Kourtidis (1870-1944). Built in 1883 by local craftsmen, the mansion constitutes a notable example of the region's bourgeois architecture and was donated by Konstantinos Kourtidis' daughter, Maria Kourtidi-Pastra, so as to become the Silk Museum.

As of 1986, systematic historical, ethnological and architectural research was undertaken, with a view to exploiting the mansion's premises and organizing a permanent exhibition on sericulture and silk manufacturing, which form part of the town's tradition. The story of the Museum's establishment and functioning can be consulted (in Greek) in the issue n° 2 of the magazine Technologia (1988).

After functioning for 15 years, the Museum was closed to the public so as to expand the premises accessible to visitors and renew its exhibition; it reopened in 2009.