The History Museum building dates from the French colonial period. Designed and built by the architect Ernest H閎rard in 1925; it functioned originally as the Museum of the 蒫ole Fran鏰ise d'Extr阭e-Orient. Unlike the Hanoi Opera House; which is purely and unabashedly French in inspiration and style; H閎rard pioneered a new hybrid style of architecture he termed indochinoise which was intended to incorporate elements of Vietnamese; Khmer and French architecture.

Anchored by an octagonal pagoda; the building is painted ochre-yellow; offset by dark green shutters and is ornamented with fanciful colonnades; brackets and balustrades.

It is one of the best museums in Vietnam; with fine collections of artefacts from the early Dong Son culture of the Red River Delta and the Oc Eo culture of the Mekong Delta; as well as from the Kingdoms of Champa and Cambodia.