Designed by Atlanta-based architectural firm Pringle and Smith in 1925, the brick building is located on Peachtree Street, across from the Fox Theatre.

It is a 12-story, brick veneer building, built of steel-reinforced concrete, with details in limestone and terra-cotta.

[2] "The Carlton" is inscribed in a terra cotta frieze separating the lower two floors from the brick facade above.

[4][2][3] Its top three floors were designed specifically for the "Bell House Boys", a social fraternity for unmarried men only.

These floors were converted to hotel rooms eventually after the Bell House fraternity moved away in 1929.

Russell Carlton Cox, owner of Hotel York in San Francisco, purchased the building in 1981 for $2.2 million.