Business and civic leaders promptly acquired the land, hired architects, and began construction.

The exterior was built with clinker brick in the Arts and Crafts style.

[3] Numerous Boston artists and teachers worked in the studios, including Marion Boyd Allen, Lila Perry Cabot, Joseph Decamp, Philip Hale, Lilian Westcott Hale, Charles Hopkinson, György Kepes, George Loftus Noyes, William Kaula, Lee Lufkin Kaula, Lillian and Leslie Prince Thompson, William Paxton, Marion L. Pooke, Edmund Charles Tarbell, and Mary Bradish Titcomb.

[4] In addition to real artists the Fenway Studios have housed fictional characters: The mystery novel "The Palace Guard"[5] by Charlotte MacLeod includes two artists living and working in the Studios, and significant parts of the action take place in and around this location.

By 1974 ownership shares had passed to heirs, the studios were not being maintained, and they owed nearly $200,000 in back taxes.