[1] The first municipal building in Montrose was a medieval tolbooth which stood in the middle of the High Street:[2][a] it was primarily used as a prison and, by the mid-18th century, the burgh leaders decided that the town needed a dedicated assembly room for civic events.

[1][5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing north along the High Street; it was originally just two storeys high but was increased in height and extended to the rear by a local builder, John Balfour,[6] to a design by William Smith with funding from a local guild in 1818.

[1] The extension to the rear was erected on land which had previously formed part of the churchyard of Montrose Old and St Andrew's Church and so a crypt was built under the town house to avoid disturbing family vaults.

[12] A sculpture by William Lamb entitled "Bill the Smith", which had been modelled on a blacksmith working at the steel fabrication yard of Harry Maiden in New Wynd, was unveiled outside the town house in 2001.

[13] Works of art in the town house include a portrait by John Prescott Knight of the locally-born former Lord Mayor of London, Sir James Duke, which hangs in the council chamber.