The central bay was formed by a full-height portico with Ionic order columns and antae supporting a frieze, an entablature, a cornice and a circular structure with oculi and a domed roof.

[6] Greenlaw had been made county town under an act of the Scottish Parliament in 1696, taking the role from Duns.

[10][11] Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking over most of the functions of the commissioners.

[15] A war memorial, designed in the form of a stone sarcophagus and intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in the First World War, was unveiled in front of the building by the Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire, Captain Charles Balfour, in November 1920.

[5] Following local government reorganisation in 1975, ownership of the building passed to a trust which commissioned a programme of restoration works which was carried out to a design by David Mylne and completed in 1985.

[19] An extensive programme of refurbishment works financed by Historic Scotland was then undertaken, to a design by Adam Dudley Architects, by Campbell & Smith Construction Group at a cost of £1.9 million.