The project, a series of five residences, included distinctive hand-carved Bolsius doors, exposed beams, carved corbels, adobe fireplaces, hand-hammered tin, and a heightened sense of romanticism.

El Cuartel Viejo was originally built as the Fort Lowell Quartermaster and Commissary Storehouse in the 1870s from unstabilized mud adobe in an Arizona territorial style.

The building as part of a quarter section of property was sold by the United States Land Office to French board Severin Rambaud in 1897.

[5] In October 1909, Cole sold the 90-acre ranch to H. Warren Shepard,[6] a wealthy starch manufacturer from Merchantville, New Jersey, who paid $14,000.

They reconfigured the original program to create three buildings connected by a perimeter wall with a central access gate on the south facade.

The windows were trimmed in wood and included the territorial style triangular-shaped pedimented lintel, featuring either a plain fascia or one augmented by combinations of moldings.