Funded by the Phi Beta Fraternity, a national professional fraternity of music and speech founded in 1912, Phi Beta Studio was built between 1929–1931 of granite quarried on the MacDowell grounds. The small studio is a simple in design, but displays a pleasing combination of materials with its granite walls and colorful slate roofing.
Inside is a striking brick fireplace designed with a corbeled mantel and stepped overmantel carefully worked in brick. The studio roof exhibits a distinct, decorative pattern worked out in red and grey slates. While a bathroom has been added onto the northeast corner, little else has changed the handsome, solid appearance of this studio since it was built.
Composer Louise Talma worked in this studio a total of 41 times over a 52-year period. When she died in 1996, she left a generous unrestricted bequest to MacDowell.
