The buildings feature half timbered gables, horizontal half-timbered bands topped with sloping slate roofs, corbelled and crenellated towers, and picturesque chimneys.

[4] The plans for forming "the Coops", has its origins partially as a response to the Palmer Raids in 1919 where radicals and immigrants were targeted by the government, with neighborhoods mapped by ethnicity.

Facing this, Jewish socialists & communists began selling shares for the planned cooperative at $250 a room (equivalent to $4,393 in 2023).

[5] In the 1940s, facing potential foreclosure there was the opportunity to re-mortgage if rent was raised a dollar more a month, however political divisions among the coop tenants lead to the discussion breaking down and ultimately voting against it.

[5] Though considered a social success, the complex failed financially in the Great Depression and was converted to rental housing in 1943.