 It was built just across the road from the Crumlin Road Gaol which had opened a few years earlier and to which it was connected by an underground passage.The building was originally used as a facility for dispensing justice but, following the implementation of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which established county councils in every county, it also became the meeting place for Antrim County Council.The county council moved to County Hall in Ballymena in 1970.