 Constructed by the firm of Thomas Emery's Sons, Cincinnati's leading real estate developers during the 1880s, it was one of the earliest large apartment buildings erected in the city.It is one of four large apartment complexes erected by the Emerys during the 1880s; only the Brittany and the Lombardy Apartment Buildings have endured to the present day.Both the Lombardy and the Brittany were built in 1885 according to designs by Samuel Hannaford; at that time, his independent architectural practice was gaining great prominence in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.