The Dick Institute was opened in 1901. The funds which were required to build the institute were provided by James' Dick, who lived in Australia but was born, in 1823, in Soulis Street, Kilmarnock. The building was severely damaged by fire only eight years after it opened. Some of the museum's collections were lost in the fire but it reopened in 1911 and was used as an auxiliary hospital in 1917 during World War I.
