Between 1897 and 1929, the Vancouver City Hall was located on Main Street, just south of the Carnegie Library; that building had previously served as a public market and an auditorium.

[2] After being elected mayor in 1934, Gerry McGeer appointed a three-man committee to select the location for a new city hall; choices included the former Central School site at Victory Square, and Strathcona Park at the corner of Cambie Street and West 12th Avenue (no relation to the current park in the Strathcona neighbourhood).

Vincent also presented several gifts to the city, including a civic mace, and a sprig "... from a tree in the orchard where a falling apple gave Isaac Newton the idea that led to his theory of gravity".

After winning the civic election on December 9, 1936, George Clark Miller became the first mayor of Vancouver to occupy the then-new city hall, on January 2, 1937.

Construction on a four-storey east wing was begun in 1968[4] (completed in 1970) and in 2012, city staff gradually started moving out when a study found it would not withstand an earthquake.