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In early New England communities town meetings were conducted where the Congregational (successor to the Puritan) Church held its services. By the 1840's a growing and more diverse population, dictated a more secular locale.

Upon learning of this need, Amassa G. Stetson stepped forward and offered to build a new Hall. Born in Randolph, then residing in Boston, he was a prosperous shoe merchant. His fortune having been secured while he served as Quartermaster General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the War of 1812.

There was land available at the corner of North and Union Streets, however Stetson wisely insisted that the new Hall be built across from that spot at the corner of Union and South Main St. This was then the highest place in Town (since slightly eclipsed by Mount Trashmore, the now moribund land fill). The site faces directly towards the length of North Main Street and is the focal point of the community. The house which stood there was moved. Construction commenced in June of 1842. By December of that same year an inaugural ball was held in the new second floor meeting hall.

It was named Stetson Hall in honor of its Benefactor. He also established the Stetson School Trust to promote a school for residents to be housed on the first floor at the back. If the Town would furnish the funds, he allowed that both boys and girls could receive an education, a very progressive attitude for that period. In the front on the first floor there was room for town offices along with space that could be rented to local business to help defray the costs. The local bank was one of the first tenants.

Over the years as town government grew, it gradually displaced the paying tenants. And as the school grew, a new Stetson Hall School building was built in 1906 (as of 1995, this became the newly renovated Town Hall and Police Station).

Meanwhile the second floor meeting hall was used to hold balls, theatrical plays, lectures (Mark Twain spoke there), along with town meeting. Also silent movies and later talkies were shown there until the Randolph Theatre was built in 1937. With the building of the new Randolph High School on Memorial Drive in the 1950's, town meetings were no longer held in Steston Hall. in 1955, need for additional office space lead to the building of partitions and drop ceilings upstairs in the meeting hall.

With the building completely occupied by town offices, many newer residents were unaware of its earlier and varied history. It had housed the first police station and the fire house was next door. The Grand Army of the Republic (Union Civil War Veterans) met there (and by some accounts had some rather raucous parties there also.) Worse yet many forgot its name, simply calling it the Old Town Hall, which it never was, having always been Steston Hall from its inception.

By the 1990's, the town needed more space for offices and the former 1906-era Stetson High School building (now supplanted by the 1950's-era High School) was renovated to house town offices and the Police Station. This emptied out Stetson Hall and ushered in a new era. The Hall could actually return to its roots as a center for the community. The first floor now houses the Randolph Historical Commission, the Randolph Chinese American Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO), Auxiliary Police Department, and other offices, along with the G.A.R. Hall (used by several local groups for their meetings).

Over the summer of 1997, a determined group of volunteers from the 1947 Graduating Class of Stetson High demolished all the old office partitions on the second floor. Removed the suspended ceilings and several layers of flooring. Fortunately there was little damage to the original fabric of the building. However the old vaulted plaster ceiling had to be removed as roof leaks had weakened it. Also some minor repairs are need on the trusses. A new roof was installed in late 1996, so there are no further leaks.

A campaign entitled "Save Stetson Hall" has been organized to help raise the funds needed to carry on the restoration of the building and enable it to soldier on for another century as both fiting symbol and functioning community center.