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Before the courthouse, the city built. In 1892 the administration of Mayor Charles Zollinger commissioned John F. Wing and Marshall S. Mahurin to design a city building at the southeast corner of Barr and Berry streets. The result, dedicated in April 1893 at a cost of $69,256, is a sandstone Richardsonian Romanesque building — the style that was Wing & Mahurin's specialty — and the press of the day praised it as the most elegant-looking and most economically built city hall in Indiana. It remained the seat of city government for 78 years, until March 11, 1971, when Mayor Harold Zeis proclaimed the new City-County Building the home of municipal government and walked there with the city employees.
The building's second life began in October 1980, when the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society opened its museum in the renovated Old City Hall — the work funded by a $350,000 federal grant, local donors and a $100,000 city match. The museum was renamed The History Center in 2002. The building is listed on the National Register as Fort Wayne City Hall.
Sources: The History Center, Fort Wayne, photographic record HP 220, Old City Hall Building; National Register of Historic Places listings in Allen County (Fort Wayne City Hall); Indiana German Heritage Society newsletter (Spring 1988), for the period press praise.