The municipality bought this former lodge at 148 Hoofdstraat in 1867 and had it converted into a town hall, as designed by H. Wessels. The town hall used to be home to the Cantonal Court, which was disbanded in 1940.
Hoogeveen is not an old place with a rich history and corresponding buildings. It was a simple canal-side village. Vincent van Gogh described Hoogeveen as follows:
'Hoogeveen may be marked on the map with a red dot, but it cannot truly be called a city (it does not even have a tower). I can’t even buy any drawing supplies here.'
