In 1948 UT purchased the Laurel Heights Apartments to help in relieving the postwar faculty housing shortage. There were 23 apartments in the facility. In spring quarter 1949, four of the apartments were designated for occupancy by female graduate students, with additional apartments to be occupied by female students if the experiment in apartment-style living was successful. This was the first time that female students had been assigned apartments, and four students shared each apartment.
The complex was sold to Mathias and Gerson Bush as part of an agreement that a new, larger complex for married students would be built. The proceeds from the sale were used in part to pay for renovations to the new Faculty (later, University) Club on Neyland Drive. The building was being demolished by Mathias R. Bush Inc. in February 1967 when room partitions and wooden floors caught fire.