Although Gatehouse of Fleet became a police burgh in 1852,[1] it was not until the early 1880s that proposals for a town hall emerged and, even then, the initiative was led by the artists, John and Thomas Faed who lived at Barlay Mill.

[4] The new building was designed by James Robart Pearson of Edinburgh in the Renaissance style, built in red sandstone and was officially opened by Thomas Faed on 11 August 1885.

[7] By 1973 it was found that the rear of the building was unsafe and the burgh council decided to close the hall to the public, demolish it and engage the local architect Antony Curtiss Wolffe to draw up plans for a remodelling.

[11][12] The entrance to the pend was flanked by a pair of Doric order columns supporting an arch of voussoirs, inscribed with the words "Town Hall", and a round headed hood mould.

[5] The building was transferred to private residential ownership,[13] and the painting by John Faed was relocated to the local schoolhouse and subsequently to the Mill on the Fleet visitor and exhibition centre.