Finally opened as a hotel in 1925, the building later became famous for its Sutherland Lounge, a popular venue for Chicago's jazz scene.

Sherman T. Cooper was among these developers, and eyed a high-class hotel at the northeast corner of 47th Street and Drexel Boulevard.

[2] Following the Supreme Court ruling in Shelley v. Kraemer, banning restrictive real estate covenants, middle-class black families moved to the north Kenwood area.

However, a change of ownership to Maxwell Rubin, Lee Gould, and Samuel Cohen in the early 1950s resulting in the building's 1952 integration.

They placed Earl Clark Ormes, a black businessman who had worked for the Supreme Life Insurance Company, as its manager.

The lounge area was occasionally used for entertainment performances in the following years, but its role as an influential jazz spot ended.

Also in 1963, a group led by four alderman established a civil rights division of the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations and used the Sutherland as its headquarters.

Seven years later, the building was purchased and converted to affordable housing by Travelers & Immigrants Aid and the Oakwood Development Corporation.