The building that now houses the Cremona State Archives was built at the beginning of the 20th century with a very different purpose than it has today: it was originally the headquarters of the Manini Institute, a charitable institution founded in 1837 on the initiative of the Cremonese priest Ferdinando Manini, for the assistance and education of young people in need.

The building, designed by engineer Ettore Signori, was certainly innovative for its purpose: although eclectic in style, as was customary in late 19th-century Italian architecture, it is characterised by large windows and spacious, bright corridors.
The building housed the college until the early 1970s, when it was transformed, respecting its original structure, into the headquarters of the State Archives, which moved here in 1979.