After significant population growth, largely associated with its development as a residential suburb of Dublin, the township of Pembroke appointed town commissioners in 1863.

[2] The site they selected on the southwest side of Merrion Road was donated by the principal landowner in the area, George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke.

[3] The new building was designed by Edward Henry Carson in the Gothic Revival stye, built by Gahan & Sons in Ballyknockan granite with red sandstone dressings at a cost of £3,300 and was completed in 1880.

The central bay featured an arched opening flanked by polished marble colonnettes supporting an architrave, which was surrounded by voussoirs.

[7] During the Easter Rising, the commander of the 177th (2/1st Lincoln and Leicester) Brigade, Brigadier-General Lancelot Richard Carleton, established a temporary headquarters in the town hall.