[1] The building was commissioned to replace the old town house in the High Street which had been designed by William Adam in the neoclassical style and completed in 1734.

[2] The design of the town house involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto the High Street.

[3] After civic leaders decided they needed a more substantial town hall, commensurate with the increasing importance of the council in society, the old town house was demolished, in the face of some opposition, to make way for the west wing of the new building.

[4] The new building, which was designed by the city architect, James McLellan Brown, based on sketches by Sir John James Burnet, was officially opened by the Prince George on 30 November 1933.

[1] The east wing of the building, closest to the Caird Hall, was originally let to Burtons, but the upper floors were later brought back into council use as its accommodation requirements expanded.