Built in 1647-50 as the Admiralty Board moved over to Skeppsholmen, and probably designed by Louis Gillis, a Dutch architect operating in Stockholm since the 1620s, it was built in a Dutch Renaissance style with stepped gables, much like the present building, but the limestone portal is the only part remaining from this period. In 1680-1750 it was used as an archive, and then as a corn stable until 1794 when rebuilt as a barrack.
Still used as the latter, it was redesigned in 1844-46 by the architect Fredrik Blom as a Neo-Renaissance building with turrets added on the corners.