Wickliffe City Hall west wing

The mansion and gatehouse on the 54-acre estate was built by Harry C. Coulby. Coulby began working for Picklands Mather in 1886, a company which owned a fleet of steamship cargo vessels on the Great Lakes. By 1905, Coulby was running the company and was known as the "Czar of the Great Lakes" for his scheduling expertise. He founded his own firm, the Interlake Steamship Co., in 1913, and then purchased Pickands Mather and its company fleets of various names. His wife died in 1921. He died on January 17, 1929, at the age of 64.

Coulby was Wickliffe's first mayor, serving a single term in 1916. The mansion served as the city hall.

Coulallenby was designed in the Italianate Revival style by architect Frederick W. Striebinger, and was built by W.B. McAllister & Co. of Cleveland. The name of the estate is a conflation of the last names of Harry Coulby and his wife, May Allen Coulby.

Construction began in 1911 and was complete in 1913. The $1 million mansion included 16 rooms with seven fireplaces, a formal gardens, a pond, a cow barn, a gatehouse (now the Wickliffe Police headquarters) and a park. The exterior is of white terra-cotta imported from Italy.

In June 1929, the Sisters of Holy Humility of Mary purchased the Coulallenby and turned it into Marycrest, a girls' school. The mansion also was the site of the Convent of the Good Shepherd, which provided housing for the nuns. In 1954, the City of Wickliffe purchased Coulallenby for its city hall. It has remained the city's mayoral and council offices ever since.

Coulallenby was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.