Constructed in 1904 for Durham Central High School, the present Durham Arts Council Building was remodeled in 1926 after the school moved out and the city needed to replace the office space it had had in the Academy of Music. The building served as City Hall until 1977, when the present City Hall opened. In 1978, the Arts Council moved in from its former headquarters in the Foushee House on Proctor Street.

As a school, the building had a low dome on its roof and a red-brick facade. The 1926 makeover removed the dome, covered the brick with plaster, and added a stone cornice meant to relate the building to the Durham Auditorium (Carolina Theatre) that adjoins it to the rear.

A glass atrium that projects from the building's original entrance to the sidewalk was added during a remodeling and upgrade project in the late 1980s.