It was designed by Peter Nicholson in the Gothic Revival style, built in pink rubble masonry with stone dressings and completed in 1851.

[2] In 1920, the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company acquired the building for £10,000, refurbished it, and operated it as the Castlecraigs Recreation Club.

[2] After being requisitioned and serving as naval barracks during the Second World War, it was acquired by Ardrossan Burgh Council, in an exchange of properties involving the Old Town Hall, in August 1946.

[8] It was extended to the south west to a design by Robert Rennie & Watson to create an enlarged complex known as the "Ardrossan Civic Centre" in 1978.

[9][10] In November 2016, a large audience attended a meeting in the civic centre to provide support to a campaign led by North Ayrshire Council, which was ultimately successful, to ensure that the drive-through ferry MV Isle of Arran continued to operate the route from Ardrossan to Brodick on the Isle of Arran, thereby abandoning proposals to change the port of departure from Ardrossan to Troon.