The building's architects were Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman.

Old City Hall, built between 1862 and 1865, is located at 45 School Street, along the Freedom Trail between the Old South Meeting House and King's Chapel.

Also on the site, the Suffolk County Courthouse was erected in 1810 and converted to Boston's second city hall in 1841, being replaced by the current building twenty-four years later.

Thirty-eight Boston mayors, including John F. Fitzgerald, Maurice J. Tobin, and James Michael Curley, served their terms of office on School Street at this site over a period of 128 years.

[3] With more than 83,000 square feet (7,700 m2) of real estate, it now houses a number of businesses, organizations, and a Ruth's Chris Steak House, Welch & Forbes, Underscore VC, McLane Middleton, Kaymbu and many more, though its most famous tenant, the upscale French restaurant Maison Robert, closed in 2004.