[2] The layout involved a two-storey main building (with an attic) at the back of a courtyard, with a wing on either side and a grand portal at the front, facing north onto Rue de la Mairie.

The central bay featured a square headed doorway with a moulded surround surmounted by a cornice and a semi-circular panel containing a bust of Henry IV supported by two angels sitting on scrolls.

The design also involved a symmetrical south-facing frontage of nine bays facing onto Rue au Lin: on this side the central bay featured a square headed doorway surmounted by a triangular pediment on the ground floor, a tall cross-window surmounted by a segmental pediment at mezzanine level, and a small bipartite window high up on the first floor.

[5] The museum relocated to Cloître Notre Dame, to form the Musée des beaux-arts de Chartres, in 1939,[6] but the library remained in the building and was badly damaged by inaccurate allied bombing on the night of 26 May 1944, during the Second World War.

The new structures were designed by Wilmotte & Associés and Trouvé-Tchépélev, built by Eiffage at a cost of €10.5 million,[9] and were officially opened by the mayor, Jean-Pierre Gorges, in June 2022.