Soon after the male citizens of Bethlehem voted to consolidate Bethlehem and South Bethlehem on July 10, 1917, discussions began about building a new city hall. Bethlehem government offices were mainly distributed between the South Bethlehem Municipal Building, at 100 E. 3rd Street, and the Armory building at 29-31-53 E. Broad Street. A few other city offices were squeezed into other locations, as well.

The Armory building, built in 1848, had badly deteriorated floors that were considered dangerous. The South Bethlehem Municipal building was built in 1892 and was limited in space.

In 1919, the Bethlehem City Planning Commission requested that Frank Koester prepare recommendations for city improvements, including a new city hall. Koester was a consulting engineer and city-planning expert from New York City. A few years before, he performed the same service for Allentown.

Koester thought a civic city center should be planned immediately. An ideal center would have three buildings: one building should house the administration offices, another building should be devoted to an art or mechanical science museum, and a third building should serve as a library. He recommended that the civic center be located near a trolley line. Referendums placed on the ballot to fund a new city center were defeated in 1929 and again in 1964.

In 1956, the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority commissioned architects Gilmore D. Clarke, Michael Rapuano and Russell Vannest Black to develop a plan for the city. These esteemed architects again pressed for a new city hall. They concluded, "At present there is a wholly inadequate and discreditable City Hall, and other municipal functions are housed in numerous renovated, obsolete and scattered buildings."

They suggested four locations for a new city hall with the Church and New Streets location as the most favorable. The architects recommended a great circle to encompass a City Hall, post office, and other city departments. The 13-acre site was made up of 64 separate properties of which 49 were dwellings and 15 were businesses. The architects described these properties as obsolete with low property values. Included in these Victorian style brick homes were the residences of poet Hilda Doolittle and the first mayor of Bethlehem, Archibald Johnston.

After the 1964 referendum defeat, Mayor H. Gordon Payrow decided a new city center, designed by Curtis Lovelace and Otto Spillman, was top priority. He formed a Bethlehem City Center Authority to borrow $6.7 million and proceeded to build the government complex without voter approval. Payrow was forced to act because the old city hall, located in the Armory Building, was condemned and razed, in 1962. Temporary office space was found on the second floor of the Sears Building at 40 E. Broad Street. Municipal offices remained there until October 26, 1967, when the new city hall was ready for occupancy.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 19, 1965. Five buildings would soon rise at the location; a five-story administration building, a 56-foot tall public safety building, a Town Hall meeting room and a three-story public library, all for a total cost of $11 million.