In 1931 Rex Cole, the appliance showman commissioned the architect of the black and gold American Radiator Building, Raymond Hood, to design a series of showrooms to display his General Electric refrigerators. This showroom in Flushing was built to look like the product it sold. Set among the then wood-frame residential buildings of the neighborhood, this modern structure was eye-catching. The three-story white cube with large, nearly full high central windows, even included a decorative feature at the top to mimic the monitor top of a refrigerator.