The Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is located in the former Sint Jacobs Gasthuis and sited on one of the oldest dikes of Schiedam : the Hoogstraat. The building was originally a guesthouse for the poor elderly and sick. Old meant anyone above the age of forty in those days.

The Schiedam guesthouse or poorhouse was established between 1262 and 1272 by Countess Aleida van Henegouwen, sister of Willem III, Count of Holland. The Sint Jacobs Gasthuis can be located on the Hoogstraat on a map dating from 1560; a chapel with a wing on each side and some small houses occupied the site where the Museum now stands. This building, one of the oldest charitable institutions, was demolished at the end of the eighteenth century, to make way for the current neo-classical building. The regents at the time appointed the Italian born architect Jan Giudici (1746-1819). Giudici designed three other buildings in Schiedam during this period. The new Sint Jacobs Gasthuis was finished in 1787. The building has some clear neo-classical features: the plan is a simple symmetrical u-shape. The two wings are connected to each other by a chapel. The outside of the chapel is of a strict classical design, with a pediment and massive columns. The two wings look like simple period houses: the women lived in the right wing, the men to the left.

In 1934 the elderly moved from the Sint Jacobs Gasthuis to newer and more comfortable accommodation in Schiedam 's Burgemeester Knappertlaan, designed by the Schiedam architect Piet Sanders. The old Sint Jacobs Gasthuis temporarily fulfilled no real function and was used for all kinds of purposes. In 1940 the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam moved from its then home the Sint Joris Doelen to the old Sint Jacobs Gasthuis. The offices and the Museum rooms were located in the right wing, the former women's wing. The attic served as storage space, with the left wing, the men's wing, being added to the Museum space in 1966. The Sint Jacobs Gasthuis was thoroughly restored and renovated between 2003 and 2006. The number of exhibition spaces has been increased considerably; from four to eleven. Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands reopened the Museum on 8 April 2006; a wonderfully festive occasion for all concerned.