The Västerbotten County Antiquarian Society reached a decision at a meeting in January 1886 that "as a storage room for antiquities a museum shall be established in Umeå." It was initially located in the Ullbergska property in what nowadays is the block Thor on Storgatan. The Southern department's collection of objects were completely destroyed by the great city fire in Umeå on 25 June 1888, when most of the city was destroyed.