The square was first called Congress Square in the original survey of Houston. It was renamed Market Square in 1837. The city commissioned its first market house and city hall here in 1840, and both were finished in 1841.
In 1854 Augustus Allen donated the square to the city, which used it as an open-air produce market. Several city halls rose and fell here, mostly because of fires. The fourth one, designed by George E. Dickey, was built in 1904 after a fire in 1901.
Today the square is a public park surrounded by nineteenth-century buildings and modern towers, with restaurants and bars. Market Square Tower, a 43-floor tower, opened in 2017.