[2] Like other tolbooths, Kirkcudbright Tolbooth had been primarily designed as a prison and, in 1859, the town clerk, William McLellan, and other burgh leaders started a campaign for new public rooms:[3] the site they selected was open land on the east side of St Mary's Street.

[4] The new public rooms were erected in 1863 at a cost of £1,900 but within a few years the foundations were found to be unsafe and it became necessary to replace the building with a new structure.

[3] The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright, the Earl of Selkirk, on 7 August 1878.

[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto St Mary's Street; the central bay featured a doorway on the ground floor flanked by pilasters and brackets supporting a balustraded stone balcony.

The windows on the first floor were flanked by pairs of Doric order pilasters and, at roof level, there was an entablature inscribed with the words "Library", "Town Hall" and "Museum" and, above that, a modillioned cornice.