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The First Exhibition Hall can be reached from the Main Staircase of the Catherine Palace. The exposition in this room acquaints visitors with the main stages in the creation of the Catherine Palace. In the centre of the left wall, among antique engravings, can be seen the communiqué from P. Apraxin to Emperor Peter I dated August 24, 1702, in which Sarskaya myza, which would later become Tsarskoe Selo, is mentioned for the first time. Hanging next to this is the drawing "Sixteen Stone Chambers" depicting the first Tsarskoe Selo palace, designed by Johann Friedrich Braunstein. The austere facade with two porticoes, the simply designed door and window frames and the fractured roof were all typical features of St. Petersburg palace architecture of the early 18th century.

The central part of the exposition is dedicated to the most significant stage in Tsarskoe Selo palace and park construction in the mid-18th century. In 1742, the architect Mikhail Zemtsov was commissioned to add "galleries on columns" and "stone wings" to the old palace. The plans were designed, but remained unattempted due to the death of their creator. In 1743, the plan for the palace created by architect Savva Chevakinsky and the architect's assistant, Andrei Kvasov, was approved. The exposition includes a surviving wooden model of the Tsarskoe Selo palace built by Andrei Kvasov. It provides a view of the architectural piece, construction of which continued up until 1748, and now no longer in existence. The "Old House" was included in the central building of the new palace as the "Middle House." The palace consisted of three buildings, a chapel and orangery connected by galleries. When the central building of the palace was enlarged, it became possible to install two more large halls and a main staircase.

The façade of the building was decorated with pilasters and a figural pediment. Two new wings were attached by Andrei Kvasov to the "middle" house by wooden galleries. A year later, Savva Chevakinsky rebuilt them of stone. In 1745, the single-story, semi-circular buildings of the circumference were completed. These are service wings enclosing the Entrance Court. In May of 1752, when the palace was finished, Empress Elizabeth decided that the palace was not extravagant enough, and inconvenient for receptions and celebrations. According to her decree of May 10, 1752, the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli was commissioned to head new reconstruction work, which entailed destroying the ready parts of the palace. Paintings by the artist F. Barizien executed in the late 18th century recreate the external appearance of the palace created by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in the 1750s, and the regular part of the Catherine Park attached to it. In this room are displayed documents telling of the conversion of the Catherine Palace into an art museum in 1918.