The house in which the Tarsky Museum of Local History is now located belonged to Yakov Vasilyevich Orlov, the original address is Bazarnaya Square, 6. In 1920, the house was municipalized, and many institutions of the city tried to occupy it. In January 1920, the legal department of Tara asked him to take over the house of Orlov, Orlov himself to move to the lower floor of the house or the house of N. V. Shansky on Green Street, where he was placed by a trick, transferring the latter to the lower floor of the Balykov house, where the former Zemstvo government was located. The Orlov family was evicted, and in the lower floor there was a school of guard soldiers. Since November 1923, Sibtorg was housed in the house. In the following years, there was a sports goods store, a culture department. And now for about 15 years the local history museum has placed expositions.
Tarsky Local History Museum is one of the oldest museums in the region. In 1932, an exhibition "Industrial and agricultural products of the Tarsky district" was opened at the district education department. On the basis of this exhibition, a museum was opened. The founder and first director of the museum was A.V. Vaganov. In 1953 the museum was closed. Most of the museum’s collections were lost because they were kept in sheds and cold warehouses. Only a small part, without any documentation, was transferred to the regional museum of local lore, where mixed with similar objects.
The museum in Tara was revived on November 5, 1968 on a voluntary basis. The new exposition was created by an initiative group led by D. I. Shchetinin. In 1970, the museum was included in the state network as a branch of the Omsk Regional Museum of Local History. 1 April 1995 Tarsky Museum received independence, was removed from the structure of the regional museum and subordinated to the district department of culture. In 1990, the building of the Savior Church, where the museum was located, was returned to the Omsk diocese. In 1992, a 2-storey brick building of pre-revolutionary construction, the former trading house of the Volkovs, was transferred to the museum, where it is located to this day.
On the first floor of the building there is an exposition "Flora and Fauna of the Tarsky District", which presents the diversity of the taiga animal and plant world. Several diaramas, numerous biogroups reflect the animal and plant world of the taiga, floodplains of the Irtysh, northern lakes and swamps. The section "History of Tara from 1594 to 1917" presents materials and exhibits telling about the development of Siberia by Yermak, the first arable land in the Omsk Irtysh region, about ancient crafts, Decembrists, merchants. Of particular interest to visitors is the interior of a peasant and merchant hut, a collection of numismatics, a model of the old fortress of the city of Tara, made according to the drawings of S. Remezev.
