Storvågan was one of the most important farms in East Lofoten. During the eighteenth century, it was the district sheriff's seat and from the beginning of the nineteenth century, Storvågan was the seat of a fishing station involved in purchasing fish, renting out fishermen's shacks, paying fishermen, trading and running a guest house. The owners were the Rønning, Lorch and Wolff families - one after another. The fishing station's heyday, when there were the most buildings on the site, was during the first half of the nineteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century, the property was run like a model farm and the large area where there formerly stood fishermen's shacks came under cultivation. Vågan sparebank (Vågan Savings Bank) took over Storvågan in 1901 and in 1909 the courtyard and its buildings were given to the municipality to be used as an old people's home. In 1976, the property was taken on by the newly-established Lofoten Museum, which is the district museum for the whole of Lofoten. Lofoten Museum was founded in 1976 and in 2004 it became part of the consolidated Museum Nord covering Lofoten, Vesterålen and Ofoten.