The museum is located in a building that used to serve as a railway station between the years of 1900 and 1939. The Orsay station was the head of the southwestern French railway network. After 1939, however, the station fell into disuse as its platforms became too short for more modern electrified suburban trains. The building continued to function as a hotel, until it was reopened as the museum that currently occupies it in 1986.