In his general plan of 1805, building director Carl Florian Goetz envisaged a promenade as the eastern boundary of the built-up town. After the construction of the first Kurhaus outside the old town in 1810, work began on the "Allee über den Warmen Damm". With Christian Zais' city expansion plan of 1818, the avenue in the east became part of the so-called historic pentagon. Wilhelmstraße was named after Duke Wilhelm zu Nassau.

The decision to only build on the inner city side of the site was a defining factor in its appearance. This allowed parks and transitions to the eastern villa district to be created on the eastern side, where two rows of trees were planted. The residential buildings on the west side - initially scattered - were built in 1810-26 with two storeys, which contrasted with the 36 m wide boulevard. Between 1840 and 1860, they were replaced by three-storey houses, and later new buildings became four-storey.

Wilhelmstrasse quickly developed into a popular promenade for spa guests and locals alike. However, its charm is diminished by the fact that it is also one of the most important north-south links for car traffic. In keeping with its character, elegant stores can be found here. In the past, cafés with outdoor catering such as Lehmann and Café Blum were also part of the overall picture, but now restaurants are only found at both ends.

The southern entrance to the promenade was once formed by Wiesbaden's first railroad stations and, from 1915, the Wiesbaden Museum and, from 1957-2015, the Rhein-Main-Hallen opposite. The western corner building on Rheinstraße dating from 1885 marks the beginning of the boulevard with five storeys, elaborate sandstone, bay windows and paintings on the upper floor. Its eastern counterpart used to be the Hotel Viktoria; a new building for a city museum was planned on the now vacant corner in front of the modern Dresdner Bank building until the end of 2014. The two corner buildings on Luisenstraße date from the late historicist construction phase, the former Hotel Metropole - recognizable by some of the city coats of arms - from 1894, the Café Hohenzollern from 1900. The magnificent domed building, which today houses the Kunder confectionery and chocolate factory, dominates this part of Wilhelmstraße. Among the villas on the east side are No. 15, the headquarters of the Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V., and Villa Clementine, now the Literaturhaus, on the corner of Frankfurter Strasse.

The most prominent building on lower Wilhelmstrasse is the Erbprinzenpalais on the corner of Friedrichstrasse, which has been the seat of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce since 1971. The corner building for Deutsche Bank opposite was built in 1908. The former Hotel Bellevue (no. 32) contains the Bellevue-Saal exhibition room. House no. 34 from 1871/72 was once the Hotel Spehner. The former Park Hotel No. 36 from 1881/82 is now used by a dance school, and the first floor houses the traditional Park Café. The complex also included a theater, which is now used by the Caligari Film Stage and is accessed from the market square. House no. 38 with the striking balcony is the Bankhaus Berlé from 1879. At the time of its construction, a street was planned between the hotel and the bank leading to the Marktkirche, but this was never built. The bank used the space to build an extension with a new entrance area. Today, its rows of columns form the beginning of the Wilhelm Arcade, with which the old street project was taken up. With its marble floor, it competes with the old "Wilhelm Passage" in house no. 40, where the "Aachener Hof" bathhouse used to be, whose owner, the freedom fighter of 1848 Georg Böhning, is commemorated by a memorial plaque. The houses from no. 40 to Burgstraße were destroyed during the war and rebuilt in a more modest style. After 1945, many of the hotels on Wilhelmstraße became banks, offices or surgeries.

On the east side of Wilhelmstraße, north of Frankfurter Straße, is the Warmer Damm park. To the north of this and Burgstraße is the section of Wilhelmstraße planned and partially realized by Zais, in which it becomes a spa district. On the east side is the new Kurhaus and in front of it the Bowling Green, framed by the so-called Kurhaus Colonnade and the Theater Colonnade of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden.

On the west side, Wilhelmstrasse opens out into a single square, today's Kaiser-Friedrich-Platz. The Kaiser Friedrich monument is surrounded by the Vier Jahreszeiten apartment building and the Hotel Nassauer Hof (with the "Ente" restaurant) in place of the old court theater from 1827. To the north of the hotel, another shopping arcade, called Via Publica, leads to Spiegelgasse. It is part of a new building complex on the corner of Taunusstrasse, which houses stores and restaurants, including the traditional Café Blum, which moved here from No. 44.

The high-rise building of the R+V insurance company from 1971, which was demolished in 2016, formed the visual end of the northern Wilhelmstrasse. After the insurance company moved out of the building in 2010, various plans were developed for the design of the so-called Kureck, including a stand-alone "Campanile" (as of 2016).

The Wilhelmstraßenfest takes place every year on the second weekend in June.