Built around 1820 and first located in Vopnafjörður in northeast Iceland, the Granary is one of two warehouses once owned by the trading company Ørum & Wulff. It was mainly used for imports of corn but was later utilised in other ways. It also served as the residence of poet Kristján Jónsson during the last years of his life. He died there in 1869. When the houses were set to be demolished in 1975, the National Museum of Iceland had them dismantled and moved to Reykjavík, where they were rebuilt at the Árbær Open Air museum. The National Museum donated the houses to the museum in 1992 in celebration of the museum's 25th anniversary.
For the most part, the house was a packhouse, but sources from the 19th century show the house was also used for living. The most famous resident of the house is Kristján Jónsson, the mountain poet, but he was the children's teacher in Vopnafjörður in 1868. He died there a year later. The lower floor has temporary exhibitions, but the upper floor is used as a meeting room and banquet hall.
