[1] It has served as a printshop for Coornhert, as a temporary council meeting location across from City Hall and even as a jail.

Though it had lost its official function, as a large and imposing building in medieval Haarlem, it continued to be used for council meetings whenever the Count of Holland was visiting.

A plaque above the door states: Wanneer de Graef hier op het Sand Sijn Princenwoning had geplant, So was dit loflijk oud gesticht.

After sentencing, prisoners received public humiliation though corporal punishment such as branding, eye gouging, or execution, but for minor crimes they were sent to the Tuchthuis, the local workhouse.

After 1755, keeping the prisoners upstairs significantly improved their living conditions, but it also saw a change in the purpose of their stay, as they had no contact anymore with the outside world.

For a short period the Hoofdwacht was in use as a military hospital, where Antonius Mathijsen made his discovery of the orthopedic plaster cast in 1851.