These similar three-story apartment houses built side by side stand out from the typical middle-class multifamily housing of the period. Constructed of buff and red brick and ornamented with boldly articulated Colonial Revival detailing, including three-story pilasters framing the corner and entrance bays, the two blocks exhibit the great range of that style. Lewis A. Dow was a local Melrose architect who began his practice in the late 1890s. R. H. and S. V. Sircom, owners of the nearby Sircom Skirt Factory, built the two apartment blocks. Like Richard Sircom, who lived in the Colonial Apartments, many of the other tenants were middle-class businessmen and professionals. Ironically, the entrance porch of the Ionic Apartment has been replaced with one in the Tuscan order.