Situated on some of the earliest land to be settled by non-Indigenous peoples in what would become Waterloo County, the museum includes the oldest remaining dwelling in the area and was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1999.

[3]: xiii [4] The group included Bishop Benjamin Eby, who planned to start a new Mennonite colony in what was then called Upper Canada.

Eventually, the village of Ebytown (Berlin by the 1830s and Kitchener after 1916)[5] grew around the core where the Haus is located.

The museum's collection includes over 7,000 items such as paintings, quilts, historical documents, board games and leather objects.

[11][12] In 2017, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo renamed the house, dropping the word Joseph from the name of the museum.