Viimsi was founded in the Middle Ages by Pirita Convent on land the Livonian Order had given it; the first written record dates from 1471. In 1591 the manor was confiscated, and it later served as an estate of the governor-general of Estonia. From 1760 to 1800 it belonged to Count Karl Magnus von Stenbock, from 1818 to 1874 to the Buxhoevedens, and from 1883 until 1919 to Felix Schottländer. The walls of the central block date from the 1700s; after a fire in 1865 the house was rebuilt in the Historicist style and lengthened at both ends. During the interwar republic the manor was given to General Johan Laidoner, who owned it until 1940.
