Town Hall, 19-21 High Street, Earlsferry

The first building on the site was an earlier town house which dated back to 1772. It was a two-story building with a steeple: it contained an assembly room for the burgh leaders on the first floor and a lock-up, which was partly below ground, for petty criminals. It also featured an external staircase, providing access to the assembly room on the first floor, but the staircase was demolished in 1849. By the mid-19th century the town house was old and decrepit and a new town council, elected in 1871, decided to demolish the old building and to replace it with a new structure on the same site. The foundation stone for the new, single-storey building was laid on 3 September 1872. It was…