After Guiraud's death in 1892, Halphen studied with Jules Massenet, who also taught Henri Rabaud, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin and Reynaldo Hahn.

Among his notable works are the one-act opera Le Cor Fleuri (libretto by Ephraïm Mikhael and André-Ferdinand Hérold), which debuted in the national theatre Opéra-Comique, 10 May 1904, several symphonies, one of which was performed in Paris and in Monte Carlo, a suite for orchestra, the pantomime Hagoseida, the ballet Le Réveil du faune, some chamber music such as a sonata for violin and piano, works for organ as well as songs.

The Foundation also created social housing on the Ile St. Louis in Paris, taking advantage of a controversial scheme to demolish one side of an original, seventeenth-century street.

By 2003, the apartment block had deteriorated but still housed low-income tenants, some of whom had lived there for decades, in what is France's single most expensive district for real estate.

The first act of the builders renovating the building was to chisel off the coloured mosaic plaque above the main entrance, bearing the words "Fondation Fernand Halphen 1926".