[1] The site selected for the town hall had previously been occupied by a Franciscan friary, which was established in 1248 but disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1540s.

[1] The new building was designed by Richard Drew in the Georgian style, built in brick with white stucco and was completed in 1779.

[1][4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a pediment with the date of completion in the tympanum.

[1] The building served as the venue for some important judicial hearings including the trial of United Irishman, William Orr, for a breach of the Insurrection Act on 14 October 1797; despite extensive evidence of his innocence, he was found guilty and hanged.

[10] The building ceased to be the local seat of government following the formation of the enlarged Mid and East Antrim Borough Council at Ballymena in April 2015.