This building is the result of two major construction campaigns resulting in a coherent and sensitive design solution which blends monumental Beaux-Arts classicism with Renaissance Revival elements and a lingering touch of stratified Richardsonian design.
Designed by Lamb & Rich, a firm well-known for educational institutions, this four-story Renaissance Revival structure was acquired by the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in 1899. Major alterations, which involved removing the existing top story, and building three new stories, along with wings to the rear, were carried out by the fashionable apartment house architect, Ralph Samuel Townsend, in 1903-05.