[1] In the early 19th century, the provost, John Ferguson, proposed that the old tolbooth and an adjacent property, Balgarvie House, be demolished as part of an initiative to create a new street: the south side of the new street would contain various civic buildings including, at the west end, the new burgh chambers and, further to the east, the county buildings and the sheriff court.

[1] The new county buildings was designed by Robert Hutchison in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone with a stucco finish and was completed in 1817.

[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nineteen bays facing onto St Catherine Street.

The central section of nine bays featured, in the central bay, a doorway flanked by pairs of Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a balcony: on the first floor there was a three-light window divided by Doric order pilasters and surmounted by a Diocletian window.

[2] After the responsibilities of the county council increased, an additional nine-bay block was erected to the east of the existing complex: it was built to a design by Thoms and Wilkie of Dundee in a similar style but without the stucco finish and was completed in 1925.