The building consists of two centuries-old edifices. The house at 6, Raekoja Street is older. This is the former prison (odelie, Büttelei) that evidently dates from the beginning of the 14th century. This initial building was thoroughly reconstructed in 1441-42 as the bills of construction in the Tallinn Town Archive prove.

The old prison remained inside the new construction and a part of it was called the “old prison” for a long time afterwards. The new building was two-storeyed and had a basement with two narrow barrelvaulted cells in it, just like the ones on the first floor. In the end wall of the cells there were danskers (lavatories). More or less the same scheme of rooms has been observed on the ground floor but the cells are even narrower and in between them there is a passage into the yard. The right-hand cell is shorter, as in front of it is a small antechamber where the staircases to the upper floor and the basement start. The main door inside a deep niche, framed by a plain portal is in the same room. The initial function of the building can be seen in the massive shackles fixed to the walls of the cells. The prison has been renovated several times. It was described as badly neglected in 1752 and the cross vaults in the streetside part of the ground floor obviously date from that time.

The prison was closely connected with the Town Hall, the first floor of which was also used for court sessions. There is a connecting door into the street.

A new prison-reformatory was opened in Rüütli Street in the 18th century and the old one became a sort of shelter for tramps and beggars. People soon changed even the name and Büttelei became known as Bottelei (begging). In 1832 the building was sold to a private owner.

Next to the prison, at 4, Raekoja Street is a building of the same age. It was the home of the prison warden and court ushers. To enlarge the former building, a small house between this and the prison was purchased in 1419 and both buildings were connected in the course of reconstructions in the1440s. The building has typical wooden ceilings in the living rooms but it has got one peculiarity: both the hall (diele) and the living room (dornse) are on the side of the street, whereas the traditional living room was behind the hall and went deep into the yard at the back. The staircase inside the wall and the kitchen corner in the lower part of the mantled chimney, also typical of dwellings, have retained their shape and site. The portal of the building lost its lancet arch and got a rounded one in the course of the 16th-century renovations.