Until the projects were built, the buildings in the neighborhood were one- or two-story wooden shot-gun structures for the most part.

During the Calliope's early days, it was considered a means for working-class families to live comfortably, while saving up the funds to purchase their own homes.

Along with a steady stream of outstanding musicians, the neighborhood produced educators, including a Superintendent of Orleans Parish Schools, and politicians, who served city and state government.

The expansion pushed the western boundary of the Calliope back two blocks from Erato Street to Melpomene Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard).

Mr. Cooper worked for the Housing Authority of New Orleans for 33 years and served on several civic and social organizations until his death in 1974.

Since the early 1980s, rival drug dealing rings have operated in & around the Calliope area, spawning what the law enforcement community in New Orleans called "a seemingly nonstop cycle of retaliatory violence."

0.30 square miles (0.8 km2) of which is land and 0.00 square miles (0.0 km2) (0.0%) of which is water.The New Orleans City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of the B. W. Cooper neighborhood as: Pontchartrain Expressway, South Claiborne Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard and South Broad Street.