Detroit Financial District
Encyclopedia
The Detroit Financial District is a historic district
in downtown
Detroit, Michigan
. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service
's weekly list of December 24, 2009.
It includes 33 buildings, 2 sites, and 1 other object that are deemed to be contributing to the historic character of the district, and also 3 non-contributing buildings.
The American Institute of Architects describes Detroit's Financial District as "one of the city's highest concentrations of quality commercial architecture."
According to the National Park Service:
In the new millennium, the 47-story Penobscot Building
stands at the center of the district as a state of the art class-A office tower and serves as a hub for the city's wireless
Internet
zone and fiber-optic communication
network. Other major class-A office renovations include the Dime Building
and the Guardian Building
, a National Historic Landmark. The Financial District is served by the Detroit People Mover
. Viewed from the International Riverfront
, the district is bordered on the left by the 150 West Jefferson
skyscraper which replaced the Detroit Stock Exchange Building and on the right by the One Woodward Avenue
skyscraper.
, constructed in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Ste. Anne's stood at the southern edge of the district, just west of the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Grswold Streets, where the Standard Savings & Loan Building is today. A stockade, later known as Fort Detroit
, was constructed around the church and southward. Portions of the fort, as well as the church and other buildings, were destroyed and rebuilt multiple times during the next few decades. By the time the fort was surrendered to British forces in 1760, it encompassed an area stretching from the present Griswold Street to west of Shelby Street, and from south or Larned Street to a block south of Jefferson Avenue. In the 1770s the fort was again extended, encompassing the entire area from the Detroit River
to Larned Street, and from Griswold Street west to Cass Avenue.
In 1778, the British military commander decided that Fort Detroit was too difficult to defend, and construction on a second fort to the north began. This fort, known as Fort Lernoult (later Fort Shelby
), was centered in the northern section of what is now the Detroit Financial District, covering the area between Fort Street and Lafayette Street, and from Griswold street west to Washington Avenue. The southern stockade was extended from the river to the new fort, enclosing nearly all the Financial District.
However, the land north of what now is Larned Street was low and marshy, and most buildings were located south of that line. In 1805, a devastating fire swept through the village of Detroit, destroying all but one structure. After the fire, Detroit was replatted, establishing the main avenues of Jefferson and Woodward. Some residents were awarded lots south of Fort Shelby and north of Jefferson in what is now financial district, and built homes there.
Fort Shelby was manned by the British until 1813, when it was abandoned and taken over by American forces. However, Fort Shelby had been deteriorating, and in 1824, the federal government ceded the southern section of the grounds to the city. In 1826, troops left the fort, and the remainder of the fort and grounds were given to the city; the next year Fort Shelby was demolished and streets platted in the pattern that remains today. In addition, the marshy section north of Larned was drained by rerouting and deepening the River Savoyard.
Other commercial establishments, including the offices of the Detroit Free Press
, occupied the area along Jefferson near Griswold and the lots immediately north thereof. By the 1850s, commercial and banking interests had pushed northward to line the first few blocks of Griswold. In 1858, a Federal Building was constructed on the corner of Griswold and Larned, spurring the construction of substantial office buildings in the surrounding area along Griswold.
Commercial and banking buildings spread north and west from the Griswold area. Fort Street east of Shelby had turned commercial by the 1870s; the section of Fort Street west of Shelby remained residential until the 1890s when a new Federal Building was constructed in the area.
in 1889; Chase Tower
now stands on this site. In 1905, the thirteen-story original Penobscot Building
was constructed on Fort Street, followed by the nearby eighteen-story Ford Building
in 1907 and the 23-story Dime Building
in 1913. In the 1920s, even larger skyscrapers invaded, culminating in the 40-story Guardian Building
and 48-story Greater Penobscot Building
, both built in 1927-29. When completed in 1928, the Penobscot became the world's eighth-tallest building and the tallest outside of New York
and Chicago
. It was the city's tallest from 1928 to 1977. The Penobscot stands at the center of the Detroit Financial District.
The Great Depression
halted the construction of buildings in the Financial District, and substantial new construction wasn't undertaken again until the late 1940s with the construction of the annex to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
. This was followed in 1959 by a new National Bank of Detroit Building, and in the early 1960s by the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company Building and the Detroit Bank and Trust Tower.
There are 36 buildings within the Financial District, 33 of which are contributing properties. The buildings within the district were designed by a suite of notable architects and architectural firms, including D. H. Burnham & Company
; Donaldson and Meier
; Albert Kahn and his eponymous firm; McKim, Mead, and White
; Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls (and Wirt C. Rowland
); and Minoru Yamasaki
.
Four of the contributing properties in this district were previously individually listed on the National Register. These include the Union Trust (or Guardian) Building
, an Art Deco
–style building and a U.S. National Historic Landmark
, the State Savings Bank Building
, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
, and the Vinton Building
. Other significant properties in the district include the 1927 Greater Penobscot Building
, tallest in the district at 47 stories, the 1959 International Style
National Bank of Detroit Building, the 1920 First National Building
, the 1925 Buhl Building
, the 1909 Ford Building
, the 1913 Dime Building
, and the 1925 Detroit Free Press Building
.
Eighteen of these buildings initially housed banks or financial institutions; many of the remainder were used for office space.
The buildings below are listed in rough geographic order beginning from the southeast corner of the district (the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson) and proceeding northwest.
42°19′44"N 83°2′44"W
The One Woodward Avenue Building (Michigan Consolidated Gas Company Building) is a 32-story, flat-roofed skyscraper with a steel frame. It was built in 1960-62, and designed by Minoru Yamasaki
and Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls; the building was apparently a model for Yamasaki's later work of the World Trade Center
in New York. The building rests on a platform, approached via entrance staircases, with a reflecting pool and tall glass-enclosed lobby emphasizing the airy lightnes. White concrete panels hold the hexagonal windows in place. The three-story glass panels were the tallest ever installed at the time.
The bronze ballerina in front of the building is by Giacomo Manzù
.
The Standard Savings & Loan Building is an -story, flat-roofed office building with a steel frame sheathed in limestone. It was constructed in 1930 and features work by sculptor Corrado Parducci
. Standard Savings & Loan was established in 1893 with offices at the corner of Griswold and Lafayette. The bank moved to the corner of Griswold and Larned in 1913, and in 1927 purchased land at the corner of Griswold and Jefferson, the site of this building. The lot is the site of first building in Detroit, the original Ste. Anne's Catholic Church
, constructed in 1701.
The building constructed for Standard Savings has twelve bays on the Jefferson facade and five along Griswold. The Griswold entrance of the building is flanked by black granite columns and features an original decorative metal gate. Signage from Raymond James brokerage, a later tenant, is still on the roof.
Standard Savings & Loan survived through the Great Depression
and into the postwar years. In the 1950s it applied for a federal charter, and in 1985 changed from a savings and loan to banking operations, becoming Standard Federal Bank
. The company was eventually acquired by ABN AMRO
.
The Detroit Federal Savings and Loan Association Building is a five-story glass-and-steel bank building designed in 1971 by Ted Rogvoy Associates. The building is set back from Woodward the same distance as the Chase Tower Detroit (National Bank of Detroit Building) just to the north. Because of its age, this building is a non-contributing property.
The Guardian Building is a forty-story office building, built in 1927–1929 by architect Wirt C. Rowland
for the Union Trust Company. The Union Trust Company was founded in Detroit in 1890 by Senator James McMillan, and Dexter M. Ferry
, along with investments from Russell A. Alger
, Col. Frank J. Hecker
, and Christian H. Buhl
. Union Trust developed a reputation for catering to common laborers, and attracted numerous customers by offering mortgages and land contracts. By 1928, Union Trust had assets of $52 million, and merged with the similarly sized National Bank of Commerce, with the new company called the Guardian Detroit Union Group.
The new company was larger than the facilities of either bank, so a new building was called for. The bank hired the architectural firm of Smith Hinchman and Grylls and their young architect Wirt C. Rowland
. Rowland designed an exotic building blending Art Deco
, Mayan, and Native American elements. The base of the steel-framed building is sheathed in red granite, and second and third stories are covered with yellow stone. The remainder of the building is sheathed with a custom-made dark orange brick. Terra cotta
and Pewabic tile
provide accents to the exterior brick.
The entrance is sheltered under an arch covered with Pewabic tile; two figures by sculptor Corrado Parducci
flank the door. On the interior, the lobby contains stained glass windows, and the vault is covered with brightly colored Rookwood tile, coordinated by Mary Chase Perry Stratton
; the structure is modelled after Beauvais Cathedral. A mural map of Michigan dominates one end of the lobby.
As the building was under construction, Union Group continued to acquire other financial holdings, and by the time the Guardian Building opened in 1929, the company had assets worth over $400 million, representing 40% of Detroit's banking industry. However, the Great Depression
hit the bank hard; the Union Trust Company reconsolidated into the Union Guardian Trust in 1930, and failed in 1933. The bank went into receivership under the name New Union Building Corporation, which retained the building.
The Guardian Building was used during World War II
by the US Army, and later both DTE Energy
and General Electric
were tenants. In 1989, the Guardian was named a National Historic Landmark
, and renovations in 1988 and 2003 restored much of the original Art Deco decoration in the building. In 2007, the Wayne County government purchased the building.
42°19′49.6"N 83°2′44"W
The Vinton Building is a twelve-story flat-roofed office building with steel frame clad in light gray brick with terra cotta details. The building was constructed in 1917, and designed by Albert Kahn for Robert K. Vinton of the Vinton Company, general contractors. The facades are in the Commercial Style, influenced by Arts and Crafts
style. Twisted columns outline the edge of the facade' the name of the building is prominently displayed at the parapet.
The Vinton Company initially used the upper floors fo the building, and a bank inhabited the ground floor. In 1925 the Guaranty Trust Company bought the building. Guaranty folded in 1933.
The Martin Limbach Hardware Building is a five-story, three-bay building. It was originally built in 1877 for the Martin Limbach Hardware Store. The facade is of brick, with stone lintels. The first floor has been renovated for a deli.
The Traub Brothers Jewelry Building is a four-story wood-frame brick building, built in 1879. Presumably the first floor was used as retail while the upper floors were used as residential space. The building was purchased by Grand Trunk Railroad early in the 20th century, and in 1911 it was renovated to serve as their ticketing office. Grand Trunk removed the second floor and installed a vaulted ceiling reminiscent of period railroad stations. The renovation added a rounded arch on the second floor, filled with paned windows and surrounded by terra cotta detailing with the company's logo.. The finely detailed interior woodwork also includes company logos. Although the lower floors of the building were completely altered during this renovation, the upper two floors still retain the original window shapes.
The building currently houses Foran's Grand Trunk Pub, and the first floor has recently been restored.
The building at 616 Woodward Avenue is a three-story wood-framed pitched-roof brick building, originally built by the W. G. Vinton Company in 1880. The first-floor storefront has been substantially renovated, but the upper stories still have original stone lintels and sills.
The Mabley and Company Building at 620 Woodward consists of two four-story wood-frame buildings, now combined into one. The buildings were constructed in 1876-80 for Mabley & Company, a department store owned by mercantilist C. R. Mabley
. Mabley had started business in this Woodward location in 1870, and by 1876 his company was one the largest in Michigan. Mabley purchased several adjoining lots and there built a series of buildings along both sides of Woodward to house his department store. Mabley died in 1885 and the business began to languish, although Mabley stores remained in Detroit until 1929.
Much of the detailing on these buildings, including roof line ornamentation, and window trim, is now missing, possibly due to major alterations in 1918. The first-floor storefronts have been renovated.
The Mabley and Company Building at 630 Woodward consists of three four-story wood-frame buildings, now combined into one. Like the buildings at 620 Woodward, these were originally part of the Mabley & Company department store. Contemporaneous histories label the five buildings at 620 and 630 Woodward as the "clothing, hat, cap, and furnishing stores of Mabley & Company."
Like the buildings at 620 Woodward, the first-floor storefronts have been renovated and external decoration has been removed.
42°19′51.7"N 83°2′45.2"W
The First National Building is a 24-story steel-framed flat-roofed building faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and constructed in 1920-22. The First National Bank was established in 1863; a year later the Second National Bank was founded. The two institutions merged in 1914, calling themselves the "First and Old Detroit National Bank." The bank occupied a large part of the Ford Building until it moved into this building in 1922, when it shortened its name to "First National Bank."
The building is an irregular shape, designed to fit its lot. The facades facing Woodward and Cadillac Square are sheathed in grey granite at the street level and limestone above; these facades have massive five-story Corinthian pillars
modeled after the columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux
in the Roman Forum. The first floor of the building houses retail space, while the upper floors were designed as commercial offices.
The Chase Tower (originally the National Bank of Detroit Building) is a flat-roofed fourteen-story building built in 1959 and designed by Albert Kahn Associates for the National Bank of Detroit
. The location itself is notable since Detroit's first skycraper, the Hammond Building
(1889), once stood on this site.
The National Bank of Detroit was founded in 1933 by General Motors
to provide banking services in the midst of the Great Depression
. Its first offices were in the First National Bank Building. GM divested itself by 1945, but the bank still had a reputation as a conservative bank primarily servicing industry. The bank began expanding its reach in the 1950s, merging with suburban banks, and in 1959 moved its headquarters across the street into this building.
The Chase Tower has a wall pattern of white marble alternating with square windows outlined with brown aluminum. The upper stories of the building rest on a recessed base with royal blue spandrels. Local residents have sometimes nicknamed the building the "cheese grater" for its paneled exterior appearance.
In 1995, the National Bank of Detroit merged with First Chicago Corp
to form First Chicago NBD. Three years later, the new bank merged with Banc One Corp to become Bank One
. Bank One became part of JPMorgan Chase in 2004.
The Detroit Fire Department Headquarters is a five-story Neoclassical building with a steel frame designed by Hans Gehrke and built in 1929. The building is constructed of dark red brick trimmed with terra cotta, sitting on a grey granite bulkhead. The Larned facade is divided into six bays; the four central bays contain arched openings, trimmed with terra cotta, housing fire engines. The eastern bay contains the entrance to the building. A terra cotta beltcourse separates the first story from those above; these upper stories still contain the original double-hung windows. The Washington Boulevard facade of much the same as the one on Larned.
The building site has been used by the Fire Department since 1840.
The building at 234 West Larned is a four-story commercial building faced with terra cotta and stone trim, constructed in 1882. The upper three floors are finished with reddish brick, and have three bays of windows with stone lintels separated by pier capitals. The first floor has been renovated with modern tile. From the 1930s through the 1980s, the ground floor building housed the Pontchartrain Wine Cellars where the sparkling wine Cold Duck
is purported to have been created.
42°19′46"N 83°2′49"W
The Buhl Building is a steel-framed, flat-roofed 26-story office building designed in 1925 by Wirt C. Rowland
of Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls for the firm of Frederick
and Christian H. Buhl
. The Buhls had originally made money in manufacturing, founding the Detroit Locomotive Works and the Buhl Iron Works (later Detroit Copper and Brass). From there they branched into retail opening a hardware store, and property development.
One of Christian's grandsons, Arthur H. Buhl, was president of the buhl Land Company at the time this building was constructed in the 1920s. At the time, demand for office space in Detroit was soaring, and Buhl decided to replace the company's small office building on Griswold with a much larger building. He hired Wirt Roland, who designed a 26-story building where the four lower floors of the building had a rectangular footprint, while the upper floors were in the shape of a cross. The cruciform shape allowed the building to take advantage of natural light and ventilatin, as well as providing a larger number of desirable corner offices. The exterior is sheathed in cream-colored terra cotta. Romanesque and Gothic details on the exterior were created by sculptor Corrado Parducci
.
The Murphy Building was constructed in 1903 for businessman Simon J. Murphy, who intended the building to house small manufacturing enterprises; it was originally known as the "Murphy Power Building." Simon J. Murphy was a Maine lumberman who made his fortune in timber, oil, and mining. Murphy owned substantial property in downtown Detroit, and established the Murphy Power Company and built this structure shortly before his death in 1905. The original plan for the building was to rent space to manufacturers requiring power and/or steam heat. Murphy's companies also constructed a number of other buildings in the Financial district, including the original Penobscot building which was under construction at the time of Simon Murphy's death. His son William H. Murphy continued the construction of the Penobscot Building, and added two more buildings of the same name, as well as a second Murphy Power Building (now the Marquette Building) in 1906.
The Murphy Building is six stories tall, with a flat roof, and is constructed of brick and terra cotta. The front facade is divided into six bays by piers stretching from the second to fifth stories. Two entrances are in the front facade, one at center left and one in the righthand bay, which at one time was the entrance to a restaurant.
The original tenants of the building included shoe and cigar manufacturing firms. Later tenants were primarily printing and publishing concerns. The Murphy and the next-door Telegraph Building were both renovated, and now share a continuous floor plate and elevator core; the combined building is known as the "Murphy-Telegraph Building."
The Telegraph Building is a six-story, flat-roofed office building faced with white terra cotta, constructed in 1913. The street-level storefronts have been renovated with green cast panels and white marble. Above the storefronts, vertical piers frame the large windows that dominate the facade, arranged in four bays on the Congress facade and eight along Shelby. At the top, a frieze and simple cornice surmount the building.
The Telegraph Building originally housed the Detroit hub of Western Union
. The Telegraph and the next-door Murphy Building have both been renovated, and now share a continuous floor plate and elevator core; the combined building is known as the "Murphy-Telegraph Building."
The Ford Building is a steel-framed, eighteen-story office building constructed in 1907–1908 by D. H. Burnham & Company
for glass manufacturers Edward Ford and his son John B. Ford. The Fords had established the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company (later merging to become Libbey–Owens–Ford) near Toledo, Ohio
in 1899, after disinvesting themselves of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company
founded by Edward's father, John Baptiste Ford
. The Fords constructed this building in Detoit as an investment property after unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate property purchases in Toledo.
The lower two floors of the Ford Building has piers an Ionic columns flanking a central entry. The exterior is covered with terra cotta; bands run above and below the third floor and another band of terra cotta divides the sixteenth and seventeenth floors. The windows of the top floor are arched.
42°19′49"N 83°2′52"W
The Greater Penobscot Building is a 47-story skyscraper with a steel frame encased in granite and terra cotta. The building was constructed in 1927-29 by Wirt C. Rowland
of Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls for William H. Murphy and the Simon J. Murphy Company at a cost of $8 million. Simon J. Murphy, William's father, was a Maine lumberman who had constructed the nearby Murphy Building and began the original Penobscot Building before his death in 1905. William followed in his father's footsteps, invesing in diverse industries including early automobile manufacturers. William H. Murphy backed Henry Ford
's Detroit Automobile Company
. as well as Ford's second venture, the Henry Ford Company
(reorganized later as Cadillac
). Murphy also built the New Penobscot Building as well at the Greater Penobscot Building.
The lower six floors of the building are square in plan, and the upper floors are H-shaped, with a series of setbacks starting at the 30th floor which define the silhouette of the top of the building. A 100-foot steel mast sits atop the building. Lighting at night accentuates the shape. The base of the building is clad in grey granite, and the walls above are limestone. Art Deco
detailing is scattered throughout the building.
The Greater Penobscot is the last and largest of the three Penobscot Buildings, and, at 557 feet, was for a brief time the fourth-tallest building in the world. Even so, for fifty years, until the 1977 Renaissance Center
was built, the Penobscot was the tallest building in Detroit. In the 1920s, the building housed the offices of the Guardian Detroit Group, along with their subsidiary banking interests. In the 1930s and 40s, Manufacturer's National Bank of Detroit occupied second-floor space. In the new millennium, the Penobscot stands as a state of the art class-A office building and serves as a hub for the city's wireless
Internet
zone and fiber-optic communication
network.
The New Penobscot Building, a 24-story, flat-roofed building, designed in 1916 by Donaldson and Meier
as a second phase of the next-door Penobscot Building. The New Penobscot fronts on West Congress and extends rearward to meet the original Penobscot Building at the alley. The New Penobscot features a Renaissance-inspired theme, with the lower five stories faced with grey granite, and the upper section faced with lighter terra cotta and ashlar. The lower section of the facade contains broad triple windows; the upper part has pairs of double-hung windows. The top four stories are separated from the lower floors by a band of terra cotta with blind reliefs. The entrance is flanked by retail shop windows, and more retail shops are located in the first-floor interior.
The Penobscot Building on Fort Street is a thirteen-story office tower of brick, terra cotta, and limestone with a flat roof, in 1905–1906 and designed by Donaldson and Meier
. This building was the first of three interconnected Penobscot Buildings constructed for William H. Murphy of the Simon J. Murphy Company. The lower three stories of the building are faced in limestone, the middle seven in brick, and the upper three in terra cotta. The facade is divided into five bays, each with a pair of double-hung windows. Corinthian column piers front the eleventh and twelfth stories, and the original building cornice is still in place. The original tenants of the first floor were the Detroit Savings Bank and the Detroit Trust Company.
42°19′48"N 83°2′54"W
The State Savings Bank is a -story steel-framed, hipped-roof bank building faced with marble. The structure was built in two portions: the front half of the building was constructed in 1900 and designed by McKim, Mead, and White
, and the rear addition was constructed in 1914 by Donaldson and Meier
. The State Savings Bank was established in 1883, and in 1907 merged with People's Savings Bank to become the People's State Savings Bank. The merged banks used this structure as their headquarters, but by 1914 had outgrown the space, necessitating the construction of the rear addition.
The front facade is divided into three bays, with a center entrance sheltered by an Ionic portico. An aluminum clock-face is set into the building wall above the entrance. A continuous modillion cornice runs along the top of the building, with a balustrade concealing the low hipped roof
. Bronze window units are set in large arched window openings. The interior includes finely crafted Roman arched colonnades with bronze grill work as well as gold-leaf detail on the ceiling in the main room.
The State Savings Bank failed in 1933, and the building was subsequently used by Manufacturer's National Bank of Detroit, and other commercial interests.
The Bankers Trust Company Building is a two-story steel-frame building designed in 1925 by Wirt C. Rowland
, chief architect for Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls. Banker's Trust Company was founded in 1917, with offices down the street on Congress before constructing this building.
The building is a faced with terra cotta and includes elaborate exterior Italian Romanesque
–style decorations, with massive arched windows designed to admit light to the banking room. The large first-floor arches are echoed on the second floor. Green marble columns topped with lions flank the corner entrance, which once had a revolving door (now removed). The interior has been remodeled multiple times as the structure was used as a bank, brokerage, fast food restaurant, and nightclub.
The Merrill Lynch Building is a three-story commercial building with steel frame and plate glass windows. The building was constructed in 1960 in the International Style
, as an annex to the nearby Banker's Trust Company Building, which at the time housed a Merrill Lynch
brokerage.
The Marquette Building was originally constructed in 1906 for businessman Simon J. Murphy; substantial renovations were performed in 1916. The building is a ten-story steel-framed office building with a flat roof and faced with red brick, fronting on Congress Street and Washington Boulevard. Cast stone is placed at the base of the building, and bands of terra cotta separate the second and third, and the third and fourth floors. "Marquette Building" is applied in metal letters above the main doors.
The US Mortgage Bond Building is a nine-story office building faced with gray limestone and brick. The building was constructed in 1924-25 for the United States Mortgage Bond Company, organized ten years earlier in 1915. The design mixes Italian palazzo, Neoclassical, and Renaissance Revival influences. The lower three stories of the building are finished in broad courses of limestone; the upper floors, finished in smoother limestone, are separated from the lower by a cornice. There are five window bays on the Shelby facade and six on the Congress facade. At some point in the middle 20th century, a pedestrian bridge was built connecting the building to the State Savings Bank across the street.
The Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company Building is a two-story limestone and brick bank building constructed in 1912. The Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company was established in 1866.
The facade of this building has four Ionic columns, plus a half-column at each end. The main entrance is between the two central columns, and the window areas between the columns are now filled with dark glass. An entablature, cornice, and balustrade span the top of the building.
The building at 220 W Congress is a steel, five-story office building. It was completely renovated in 1970, adding a front facade of blue- and cream-colored steel with dark glass. This structure is non-contributing.
The Detroit Trust Company Building is a -story steel-framed bank building originally constructed in 1915 by Albert Kahn. The Detroit Trust Company was founded in 1900; it occupied space in the nearby Penobscot Building before moving into this building. In 1925, Kahn designed a substantial addition, tripling the frontage on Fort Street.
The building is Neoclassical in design, with eight Corinthian pillars
and four similar pilasters arranged across the facade. Kahn's design for this building was influenced by McKim, Mead, and White's nearby State Savings Bank. A series of windows interspersed by plaques with foliated details are set in the attic story. The building was modernized in 1964, and the front section between the columns was rebuilt.
The Detroit Trust Company merged with Detroit Bank in the 1950s to form the Detroit Bank and Trust Company, and built the next-door tower at 211 W. Fort. The company changed its name to Comerica Bank in 1982; this building is still an office of Comerica.
The Detroit Bank and Trust Tower is a steel-frame 28-story tower designed in 1963 by Harley, Ellington, Cowan, and Stirton for Detroit Bank and Trust (now Comerica Bank). The pre-cast concrete forms filled with glass give the building a grid-like appearance. This building does not contribute to the district, but only because it is less than 50 years old.
The Dime Savings Bank Building was built in 1913-14 by D. H. Burnham & Company
. The building is a 23-story flat-roofed skyscraper with a U-shaped footprint, with the open end toward Griswold Street. The Dime Savings Bank was organized in 1884 by a group of Detroit businessmen including J. L. Hudson and James E. Scripps
; their offices were originally on Griswold north of Lafayette. They later moved to the Hammond Building
, where they stayed until this structure was built.
The most notable feature of the facade is the light well along the front facade; unlike Burhham's nearby Ford Buildings where the well is invisible from the front, the light well of the Dime Building faces Griswold. The lower two floors of the building are clad in brown granite that was applied during a 1950s renovation; the upper floors are clad in the original terra cotta. The upper three stories are differeintialed from the main body of the building by a different window treatment. The Dime was fully renovated in 2002, including an impressive treatment of the skylight opening up to the light well.
The Dime Savings Bank originally occupied a three-story banking room in the center of the building and used the upper floors for office space.
42°19′50"N 83°2′55"W
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch consists of two parts: a -story Neoclassical marble bank building built in 1923 and an eight-story International style
annex built in 1949–1951. The original building was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, & White; the addition (and later renovation) was done by Minoru Yamasaki
. Yamasaki's bold addition was on the leading edge of Modern architecture.
The floor plates of the two buildings are aligned, as the interior of the original building was gutted with the annex was built.
The Security Trust Company is a seven-story bank building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1925. Security Trust was established in 1906, and two years later moved to the corner of Griswold and Fort Streets, just south of where this building was constructed.
The front facade has columns flanking three four-story tall arches. The columns are finished with elabortately carved human and animal motifs. In 1964, the original gable atop the building was removed and a two-story flat-roofed addition was placed atop the building. The addition is clad with cast concrete panels.
The First State Bank Building is a four-story, flat-roofed bank building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1924-25. First State Bank began life in 1871 as the "German American Bank" with offices on Larned; the bank moved at least twice more before building this structure.
The main entrance of the building is surrounded with carved marble depicting urns, animals, and foliage. The building is located at the corner of Griswold and Lafayette Streets, and has decorative facades facing both streets. Each facade has three-story Ionic columns supporting the attic story, on the upper story, double-hung windows are grouped in pairs, separated by elaborate plaques. A parapet runs across the roofline.
The Theodore Levin United States Courthouse is a ten-story federal courthouse, steel-framed and clad in limestone. The building was constructed in 1932-34, and designed by Branson V. Gambler and Robert O. Derrick. It stands on an entire city block. The building stands on a black granite base, and relief carvings of eagles and other symbols are above the entrance. The upper three stories are set back slightly from the remainder of the building. The interior of the building features fine detailing and plaster stencilwork.
The Detroit Free Press Building is a fourteen-story flat-roofed building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1925. The building is designed using the then-popular technique of a central mass with six-story wings to each side. On the exterior, medallions inset into the building depict historical newsmen. A restaurant and other retail spaces are located on the Lafayette Boulevard facade.
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
in downtown
Downtown Detroit
Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Downtown is bordered by the Lodge Freeway to the west, the Fisher Freeway to the north, Interstate 375 to the east, and the Detroit River to the south.Downtown contains much historic...
Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
's weekly list of December 24, 2009.
It includes 33 buildings, 2 sites, and 1 other object that are deemed to be contributing to the historic character of the district, and also 3 non-contributing buildings.
The American Institute of Architects describes Detroit's Financial District as "one of the city's highest concentrations of quality commercial architecture."
According to the National Park Service:
From the 1850s to the 1970s the Financial District in downtown Detroit was the financial and office heart of the city, and it stills retains an important banking and office presence today. Banks began to locate along Jefferson Avenue in the Griswold and Shelby streets area in the 1830s. Substantial office buildings, often containing banks in their street levels, began to line Griswold in the 1850s. Detroit's massive early twentieth-century auto industry-related growth and economic boom resulted in large-scale redevelopment of the area between 1900 and 1930, and another wave of development took place in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Financial District continues today to be an important financial and office district in Detroit.
In the new millennium, the 47-story Penobscot Building
Penobscot Building
The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a skyscraper and class-A office building in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Rising 566 feet , the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until the construction of the Renaissance...
stands at the center of the district as a state of the art class-A office tower and serves as a hub for the city's wireless
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
zone and fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information...
network. Other major class-A office renovations include the Dime Building
Dime Building
The Dime Building is a skyscraper class-A office building located in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is adjacent to the Penobscot Building in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The building stands 23 stories tall, with eight elevators, and was constructed between 1910 and 1912. It is used...
and the Guardian Building
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a skyscraper at 500 Griswold Street in the downtown of the city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, in the United States of America. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters...
, a National Historic Landmark. The Financial District is served by the Detroit People Mover
Detroit People Mover
The Detroit People Mover is a automated people mover system which operates on a single set of tracks, and encircles downtown Detroit, Michigan....
. Viewed from the International Riverfront
Detroit International Riverfront
The Detroit International Riverfront is an area of Detroit, Michigan that borders the Detroit River. The International Riverfront area extends from the Ambassador Bridge in the west to Belle Isle in the east, extending a total of 5½-miles and encompassing a multitude of parks, restaurants, retail...
, the district is bordered on the left by the 150 West Jefferson
150 West Jefferson
150 West Jefferson is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. The building was constructed in 1987, and finished in 1989. It stands at 26 stories tall, with two basement floors, for a total of 28...
skyscraper which replaced the Detroit Stock Exchange Building and on the right by the One Woodward Avenue
One Woodward Avenue
The building now known as One Woodward Avenue is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Detroit, Michigan. Located next to the city's Civic Center and Financial District, it overlooks the International Riverfront and was designed to blend with the City-County Building across Woodward Avenue and...
skyscraper.
Old Detroit: Before 1830
What is now the Detroit Financial District was the site of the construction of the first building in Detroit, Ste. Anne's Catholic ChurchSte. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church
Ste. Anne de Détroit, founded July 26, 1701, is the second oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States. The current church, built in 1886, is located at 1000 Ste. Anne St. in Detroit, Michigan near the Richard-Hubbard neighborhood area, the Ambassador Bridge, and the...
, constructed in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Ste. Anne's stood at the southern edge of the district, just west of the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Grswold Streets, where the Standard Savings & Loan Building is today. A stockade, later known as Fort Detroit
Fort Detroit
Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Détroit was a fort established by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701. The location of the former fort is now in the city of Detroit in the U.S...
, was constructed around the church and southward. Portions of the fort, as well as the church and other buildings, were destroyed and rebuilt multiple times during the next few decades. By the time the fort was surrendered to British forces in 1760, it encompassed an area stretching from the present Griswold Street to west of Shelby Street, and from south or Larned Street to a block south of Jefferson Avenue. In the 1770s the fort was again extended, encompassing the entire area from the Detroit River
Detroit River
The Detroit River is a strait in the Great Lakes system. The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as "River of the Strait". The Detroit River has served an important role in the history of Detroit and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. The river...
to Larned Street, and from Griswold Street west to Cass Avenue.
In 1778, the British military commander decided that Fort Detroit was too difficult to defend, and construction on a second fort to the north began. This fort, known as Fort Lernoult (later Fort Shelby
Fort Shelby (Michigan)
Fort Shelby was a military fort in Detroit, Michigan that played a significant role in the War of 1812. It was built by the British in 1779 as Fort Lernoult, and was ceded to the United States by the Jay Treaty in 1796. It was renamed Fort Detroit by Secretary of War Henry Dearborn in 1805...
), was centered in the northern section of what is now the Detroit Financial District, covering the area between Fort Street and Lafayette Street, and from Griswold street west to Washington Avenue. The southern stockade was extended from the river to the new fort, enclosing nearly all the Financial District.
However, the land north of what now is Larned Street was low and marshy, and most buildings were located south of that line. In 1805, a devastating fire swept through the village of Detroit, destroying all but one structure. After the fire, Detroit was replatted, establishing the main avenues of Jefferson and Woodward. Some residents were awarded lots south of Fort Shelby and north of Jefferson in what is now financial district, and built homes there.
Fort Shelby was manned by the British until 1813, when it was abandoned and taken over by American forces. However, Fort Shelby had been deteriorating, and in 1824, the federal government ceded the southern section of the grounds to the city. In 1826, troops left the fort, and the remainder of the fort and grounds were given to the city; the next year Fort Shelby was demolished and streets platted in the pattern that remains today. In addition, the marshy section north of Larned was drained by rerouting and deepening the River Savoyard.
| Early images of the Financial District |
|---|
Early settlement: 1830 to 1860
Beginning in the 1830s, the financial institutions of Detroit began to locate along West Jefferson, on the southern edge of what is now the Financial District, while the remainder of the district developed into a primarily residential area as the streets in the area were slowly opened and graded. The first bank located along west Jefferson was the Bank of Michigan, which built its headquarters on the south side of Jefferson near Woodward in 1831, and five years later built another structure at Jefferson and Griswold (just south of the area that is now the Financial District). The 1830s adnd 40s brought more banks along Jefferson near Griswold, including the Farmer's and Mechanic's Bank (1832), National Insurance Bank (1838), Michigan State Bank (1837), the Bank of St. Clair (1842), and the Peninsular Bank (1849).Other commercial establishments, including the offices of the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
, occupied the area along Jefferson near Griswold and the lots immediately north thereof. By the 1850s, commercial and banking interests had pushed northward to line the first few blocks of Griswold. In 1858, a Federal Building was constructed on the corner of Griswold and Larned, spurring the construction of substantial office buildings in the surrounding area along Griswold.
| Buildings in the Financial District constructed early and mid- 19th century |
|---|
The rise of commercialism: 1860 to 1900
Many of the office buildings constructed near the 1858 Federal Building housed at least one bank on the first floor, and by 1884, historian Silas Farmer called Griswold "the Wall Street of Detroit." In 1899, 22 of the 23 banks in Detroit were located in what is now the Financial District—20 of them on Griswold alone.Commercial and banking buildings spread north and west from the Griswold area. Fort Street east of Shelby had turned commercial by the 1870s; the section of Fort Street west of Shelby remained residential until the 1890s when a new Federal Building was constructed in the area.
| Buildings in the Financial District, c. 1890 |
|---|
Modern Detroit: After 1900
The Financial District underwent a dramatic transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century, heralded by the arrival of Detroit's first skyscraper, the Hammond BuildingHammond Building
The Hammond Building was a high-rise building completed in 1889 at the corner of Griswold Street West Fort Street in the financial district of downtown, Detroit, Michigan. The building was designed by Harry W. J. Edbrooke, and is considered the first historic steel-framed skyscraper in the city,...
in 1889; Chase Tower
Chase Tower (Detroit)
Chase Tower is a high-rise office building located at 611 Woodward Avenue, in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was built in 1959 and stands at 14 floors in height. It was designed in the modern architectural style, and uses a great deal of marble to coordinate with the buildings in the nearby Civic...
now stands on this site. In 1905, the thirteen-story original Penobscot Building
The Penobscot Building
The original building of the complex was built in 1904 and finished in 1905. It stands to this day at 13 stories, at 131 West Fort street. The office building is used mainly for retail. It was constructed in the Beaux Arts architectural design, and incorporates brick and stone into its materials...
was constructed on Fort Street, followed by the nearby eighteen-story Ford Building
Ford Building
The Ford Building is a high-rise office building at 615 Griswold Street, in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is located at the northwest corner of Congress and Griswold Streets in the heart of Detroit's Financial District...
in 1907 and the 23-story Dime Building
Dime Building
The Dime Building is a skyscraper class-A office building located in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is adjacent to the Penobscot Building in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The building stands 23 stories tall, with eight elevators, and was constructed between 1910 and 1912. It is used...
in 1913. In the 1920s, even larger skyscrapers invaded, culminating in the 40-story Guardian Building
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a skyscraper at 500 Griswold Street in the downtown of the city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, in the United States of America. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters...
and 48-story Greater Penobscot Building
Penobscot Building
The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a skyscraper and class-A office building in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Rising 566 feet , the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until the construction of the Renaissance...
, both built in 1927-29. When completed in 1928, the Penobscot became the world's eighth-tallest building and the tallest outside of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. It was the city's tallest from 1928 to 1977. The Penobscot stands at the center of the Detroit Financial District.
The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
halted the construction of buildings in the Financial District, and substantial new construction wasn't undertaken again until the late 1940s with the construction of the annex to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building is a bank building located at 160 W. Fort Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008....
. This was followed in 1959 by a new National Bank of Detroit Building, and in the early 1960s by the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company Building and the Detroit Bank and Trust Tower.
Buildings
D. H. Burnham & Company
D.H. Burnham and Company of was an architecture firm based in Chicago, Illinois. As successor to Burnham and Root, the name was changed once John Root died in 1891. Root was the chief consulting architect for the World's Columbian Exposition. After Root's death, Daniel Burnham took that title...
; Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier was an architectural firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1880 by John Donaldson and Henry J. Meier the firm produced a large and varied number of commissions in Detroit and southeastern Michigan...
; Albert Kahn and his eponymous firm; McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
; Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls (and Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
); and Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, buildings 1 and 2. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century...
.
Four of the contributing properties in this district were previously individually listed on the National Register. These include the Union Trust (or Guardian) Building
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a skyscraper at 500 Griswold Street in the downtown of the city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, in the United States of America. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters...
, an Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
–style building and a U.S. National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, the State Savings Bank Building
Savoyard Centre
Savoyard Centre , also known as State Savings Bank, is an office building at 151 Fort Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1981 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Another historic marker erected November 13, 1964, also...
, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building is a bank building located at 160 W. Fort Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008....
, and the Vinton Building
Vinton Building
The Vinton Building is a residential high-rise located at 600 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It is located next to the First National Building, and stands across Woodward Avenue from Chase Tower, and across Congress Street from Comerica Tower and the Guardian Building...
. Other significant properties in the district include the 1927 Greater Penobscot Building
Penobscot Building
The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a skyscraper and class-A office building in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Rising 566 feet , the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until the construction of the Renaissance...
, tallest in the district at 47 stories, the 1959 International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
National Bank of Detroit Building, the 1920 First National Building
First National Building
The First National Building is an skycraper and class-A office center in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Completed in 1930, the structure rises 25 stories and includes two basement levels, occupying an entire block along Cadillac Square . Located within the Detroit Financial District, the tower's main...
, the 1925 Buhl Building
Buhl Building
The Buhl Building is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Architect Wirt C. Rowland designed the Buhl in a Neo-Gothic style with Romanesque accents...
, the 1909 Ford Building
Ford Building
The Ford Building is a high-rise office building at 615 Griswold Street, in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is located at the northwest corner of Congress and Griswold Streets in the heart of Detroit's Financial District...
, the 1913 Dime Building
Dime Building
The Dime Building is a skyscraper class-A office building located in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is adjacent to the Penobscot Building in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The building stands 23 stories tall, with eight elevators, and was constructed between 1910 and 1912. It is used...
, and the 1925 Detroit Free Press Building
Detroit Free Press Building
The Detroit Free Press Building is a building designed by architect Albert Kahn and constructed in downtown Detroit, Michigan, in 1924 and completed a year later....
.
Eighteen of these buildings initially housed banks or financial institutions; many of the remainder were used for office space.
The buildings below are listed in rough geographic order beginning from the southeast corner of the district (the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson) and proceeding northwest.
One Woodward Avenue
42°19′44"N 83°2′44"W
The One Woodward Avenue Building (Michigan Consolidated Gas Company Building) is a 32-story, flat-roofed skyscraper with a steel frame. It was built in 1960-62, and designed by Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, buildings 1 and 2. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century...
and Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls; the building was apparently a model for Yamasaki's later work of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York. The building rests on a platform, approached via entrance staircases, with a reflecting pool and tall glass-enclosed lobby emphasizing the airy lightnes. White concrete panels hold the hexagonal windows in place. The three-story glass panels were the tallest ever installed at the time.
The bronze ballerina in front of the building is by Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù, pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni , was an Italian sculptor, communist, and Roman Catholic.-Biography:...
.
Standard Savings & Loan Building (One Griswold)
42°19′42.2"N 83°2′45.5"WThe Standard Savings & Loan Building is an -story, flat-roofed office building with a steel frame sheathed in limestone. It was constructed in 1930 and features work by sculptor Corrado Parducci
Corrado Parducci
Corrado Giuseppe Parducci was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early 20th Century works.-Early life and education:...
. Standard Savings & Loan was established in 1893 with offices at the corner of Griswold and Lafayette. The bank moved to the corner of Griswold and Larned in 1913, and in 1927 purchased land at the corner of Griswold and Jefferson, the site of this building. The lot is the site of first building in Detroit, the original Ste. Anne's Catholic Church
Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church
Ste. Anne de Détroit, founded July 26, 1701, is the second oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States. The current church, built in 1886, is located at 1000 Ste. Anne St. in Detroit, Michigan near the Richard-Hubbard neighborhood area, the Ambassador Bridge, and the...
, constructed in 1701.
The building constructed for Standard Savings has twelve bays on the Jefferson facade and five along Griswold. The Griswold entrance of the building is flanked by black granite columns and features an original decorative metal gate. Signage from Raymond James brokerage, a later tenant, is still on the roof.
Standard Savings & Loan survived through the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and into the postwar years. In the 1950s it applied for a federal charter, and in 1985 changed from a savings and loan to banking operations, becoming Standard Federal Bank
Standard Federal Bank
Standard Federal Bank was a Troy, Michigan-based bank serving Michigan and Northern Indiana which began doing business as Bank of America on 5 May 2008....
. The company was eventually acquired by ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is a Dutch state-owned bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. It was re-established, in its current form, in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of ABN AMRO Group by a banking consortium consisting of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander and Fortis...
.
Detroit Federal Savings and Loan Association Building (501 Woodward)
42°19′47"N 83°2′45"WThe Detroit Federal Savings and Loan Association Building is a five-story glass-and-steel bank building designed in 1971 by Ted Rogvoy Associates. The building is set back from Woodward the same distance as the Chase Tower Detroit (National Bank of Detroit Building) just to the north. Because of its age, this building is a non-contributing property.
Guardian Building (500 Griswold)
42°19′46"N 83°2′46"WThe Guardian Building is a forty-story office building, built in 1927–1929 by architect Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
for the Union Trust Company. The Union Trust Company was founded in Detroit in 1890 by Senator James McMillan, and Dexter M. Ferry
Dexter M. Ferry
Dexter Mason Ferry, Jr. was an American politician from Michigan.-Early life:...
, along with investments from Russell A. Alger
Russell A. Alger
Russell Alexander Alger was the 20th Governor and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan and also U.S. Secretary of War during the Presidential administration of William McKinley...
, Col. Frank J. Hecker
Frank J. Hecker
Frank J. Hecker was an American railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit, Michigan-Early life:Frank J. Hecker was born in Freedom, Michigan on July 6, 1846. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1859, where Frank was educated...
, and Christian H. Buhl
Christian H. Buhl
Christian H. Buhl was a businessman and industrialist from Detroit, Michigan. He served as the city's mayor in 1860-61.-Biography:...
. Union Trust developed a reputation for catering to common laborers, and attracted numerous customers by offering mortgages and land contracts. By 1928, Union Trust had assets of $52 million, and merged with the similarly sized National Bank of Commerce, with the new company called the Guardian Detroit Union Group.
The new company was larger than the facilities of either bank, so a new building was called for. The bank hired the architectural firm of Smith Hinchman and Grylls and their young architect Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
. Rowland designed an exotic building blending Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
, Mayan, and Native American elements. The base of the steel-framed building is sheathed in red granite, and second and third stories are covered with yellow stone. The remainder of the building is sheathed with a custom-made dark orange brick. Terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
and Pewabic tile
Pewabic Pottery
Pewabic Pottery is a studio and school located in Detroit, Michigan and founded in 1903. The studio is known for its iridescent glazes, some of which grace notable buildings such as the Shedd Aquarium and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Pewabic Pottery is on display...
provide accents to the exterior brick.
The entrance is sheltered under an arch covered with Pewabic tile; two figures by sculptor Corrado Parducci
Corrado Parducci
Corrado Giuseppe Parducci was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early 20th Century works.-Early life and education:...
flank the door. On the interior, the lobby contains stained glass windows, and the vault is covered with brightly colored Rookwood tile, coordinated by Mary Chase Perry Stratton
Mary Chase Perry Stratton
Mary Chase Perry Stratton was an American ceramic artist. She was a co-founder, along with Horace James Caulkins, of Pewabic Pottery, a form of ceramic art used to make architectural tiles.-Early years:...
; the structure is modelled after Beauvais Cathedral. A mural map of Michigan dominates one end of the lobby.
As the building was under construction, Union Group continued to acquire other financial holdings, and by the time the Guardian Building opened in 1929, the company had assets worth over $400 million, representing 40% of Detroit's banking industry. However, the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit the bank hard; the Union Trust Company reconsolidated into the Union Guardian Trust in 1930, and failed in 1933. The bank went into receivership under the name New Union Building Corporation, which retained the building.
The Guardian Building was used during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by the US Army, and later both DTE Energy
DTE Energy
DTE Energy Co. is a Detroit, Michigan-based utility incorporated in 1995 involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide....
and General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
were tenants. In 1989, the Guardian was named a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, and renovations in 1988 and 2003 restored much of the original Art Deco decoration in the building. In 2007, the Wayne County government purchased the building.
Vinton Building (600 Woodward)
42°19′49.6"N 83°2′44"W
The Vinton Building is a twelve-story flat-roofed office building with steel frame clad in light gray brick with terra cotta details. The building was constructed in 1917, and designed by Albert Kahn for Robert K. Vinton of the Vinton Company, general contractors. The facades are in the Commercial Style, influenced by Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
style. Twisted columns outline the edge of the facade' the name of the building is prominently displayed at the parapet.
The Vinton Company initially used the upper floors fo the building, and a bank inhabited the ground floor. In 1925 the Guaranty Trust Company bought the building. Guaranty folded in 1933.
Martin Limbach Hardware Building (608 Woodward)
42°19′49.9"N 83°2′44.1"WThe Martin Limbach Hardware Building is a five-story, three-bay building. It was originally built in 1877 for the Martin Limbach Hardware Store. The facade is of brick, with stone lintels. The first floor has been renovated for a deli.
Traub Brothers Jewelry Building (612 Woodward)
42°19′50.1"N 83°2′44.25"WThe Traub Brothers Jewelry Building is a four-story wood-frame brick building, built in 1879. Presumably the first floor was used as retail while the upper floors were used as residential space. The building was purchased by Grand Trunk Railroad early in the 20th century, and in 1911 it was renovated to serve as their ticketing office. Grand Trunk removed the second floor and installed a vaulted ceiling reminiscent of period railroad stations. The renovation added a rounded arch on the second floor, filled with paned windows and surrounded by terra cotta detailing with the company's logo.. The finely detailed interior woodwork also includes company logos. Although the lower floors of the building were completely altered during this renovation, the upper two floors still retain the original window shapes.
The building currently houses Foran's Grand Trunk Pub, and the first floor has recently been restored.
616 Woodward
42°19′50.2"N 83°2′44.3"WThe building at 616 Woodward Avenue is a three-story wood-framed pitched-roof brick building, originally built by the W. G. Vinton Company in 1880. The first-floor storefront has been substantially renovated, but the upper stories still have original stone lintels and sills.
Mabley and Company Building (620 Woodward)
42°19′50.5"N 83°2′44.4"WThe Mabley and Company Building at 620 Woodward consists of two four-story wood-frame buildings, now combined into one. The buildings were constructed in 1876-80 for Mabley & Company, a department store owned by mercantilist C. R. Mabley
C. R. Mabley
C.R.Mabley was the founder of a chain of department stores in the USA. He was known as "The Merchant Prince"Christopher Richards Mabley was born on Feb 22, 1836 in St. Minver, Cornwall, England to William and Mary née Richards Mably. His first wife, Catherine, bore him at least 8 children of whom...
. Mabley had started business in this Woodward location in 1870, and by 1876 his company was one the largest in Michigan. Mabley purchased several adjoining lots and there built a series of buildings along both sides of Woodward to house his department store. Mabley died in 1885 and the business began to languish, although Mabley stores remained in Detroit until 1929.
Much of the detailing on these buildings, including roof line ornamentation, and window trim, is now missing, possibly due to major alterations in 1918. The first-floor storefronts have been renovated.
Mabley and Company Building (630 Woodward)
42°19′50.8"N 83°2′44.8"WThe Mabley and Company Building at 630 Woodward consists of three four-story wood-frame buildings, now combined into one. Like the buildings at 620 Woodward, these were originally part of the Mabley & Company department store. Contemporaneous histories label the five buildings at 620 and 630 Woodward as the "clothing, hat, cap, and furnishing stores of Mabley & Company."
Like the buildings at 620 Woodward, the first-floor storefronts have been renovated and external decoration has been removed.
First National Building (660 Woodward)
42°19′51.7"N 83°2′45.2"W
The First National Building is a 24-story steel-framed flat-roofed building faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and constructed in 1920-22. The First National Bank was established in 1863; a year later the Second National Bank was founded. The two institutions merged in 1914, calling themselves the "First and Old Detroit National Bank." The bank occupied a large part of the Ford Building until it moved into this building in 1922, when it shortened its name to "First National Bank."
The building is an irregular shape, designed to fit its lot. The facades facing Woodward and Cadillac Square are sheathed in grey granite at the street level and limestone above; these facades have massive five-story Corinthian pillars
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
modeled after the columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Castor and Pollux
The Temple of Castor and Pollux is an ancient edifice in the Roman Forum, Rome, central Italy. It was originally built in gratitude for victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus . Castor and Pollux were the Dioscuri, the "twins" of Gemini, the twin sons of Zeus and Leda...
in the Roman Forum. The first floor of the building houses retail space, while the upper floors were designed as commercial offices.
Chase Tower Detroit (611 Woodward)
42°19′50"N 83°2′48"WThe Chase Tower (originally the National Bank of Detroit Building) is a flat-roofed fourteen-story building built in 1959 and designed by Albert Kahn Associates for the National Bank of Detroit
National Bank of Detroit
The National Bank of Detroit , later renamed NBD Bank, was a bank that operated mostly in the Midwestern United States. Following its merger with First National Bank of Chicago, the bank was ultimately acquired and merged into Bank One, at which point the NBD name was discontinued...
. The location itself is notable since Detroit's first skycraper, the Hammond Building
Hammond Building
The Hammond Building was a high-rise building completed in 1889 at the corner of Griswold Street West Fort Street in the financial district of downtown, Detroit, Michigan. The building was designed by Harry W. J. Edbrooke, and is considered the first historic steel-framed skyscraper in the city,...
(1889), once stood on this site.
The National Bank of Detroit was founded in 1933 by General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
to provide banking services in the midst of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Its first offices were in the First National Bank Building. GM divested itself by 1945, but the bank still had a reputation as a conservative bank primarily servicing industry. The bank began expanding its reach in the 1950s, merging with suburban banks, and in 1959 moved its headquarters across the street into this building.
The Chase Tower has a wall pattern of white marble alternating with square windows outlined with brown aluminum. The upper stories of the building rest on a recessed base with royal blue spandrels. Local residents have sometimes nicknamed the building the "cheese grater" for its paneled exterior appearance.
In 1995, the National Bank of Detroit merged with First Chicago Corp
First Chicago Bank
First Chicago Bank was a Chicago-based retail and commercial bank tracing its roots back to 1863. Over the years, the bank operated under several names including The First National Bank of Chicago and First Chicago NBD...
to form First Chicago NBD. Three years later, the new bank merged with Banc One Corp to become Bank One
Bank One Corporation
Some of the banks that were merged into these banks include:*Bank One**Security National Bank & Trust **Affiliated Bankshares of Colorado **American Fletcher Corp. **City National Bank and Trust Co...
. Bank One became part of JPMorgan Chase in 2004.
Detroit Fire Department Headquarters (250 W. Larned)
42°19′42"N 83°2′54"WThe Detroit Fire Department Headquarters is a five-story Neoclassical building with a steel frame designed by Hans Gehrke and built in 1929. The building is constructed of dark red brick trimmed with terra cotta, sitting on a grey granite bulkhead. The Larned facade is divided into six bays; the four central bays contain arched openings, trimmed with terra cotta, housing fire engines. The eastern bay contains the entrance to the building. A terra cotta beltcourse separates the first story from those above; these upper stories still contain the original double-hung windows. The Washington Boulevard facade of much the same as the one on Larned.
The building site has been used by the Fire Department since 1840.
234 W. Larned
42°19′42"N 83°2′53.2"WThe building at 234 West Larned is a four-story commercial building faced with terra cotta and stone trim, constructed in 1882. The upper three floors are finished with reddish brick, and have three bays of windows with stone lintels separated by pier capitals. The first floor has been renovated with modern tile. From the 1930s through the 1980s, the ground floor building housed the Pontchartrain Wine Cellars where the sparkling wine Cold Duck
Cold Duck
-Origin:The wine was invented by Harold Borgman, the owner of Pontchartrain Wine Cellars in Detroit, in 1937. The recipe was based on a traditional German custom of mixing all the dregs of unfinished wine bottles with champagne...
is purported to have been created.
Buhl Building (535 Griswold)
42°19′46"N 83°2′49"W
The Buhl Building is a steel-framed, flat-roofed 26-story office building designed in 1925 by Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
of Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls for the firm of Frederick
Frederick Buhl
Frederick Buhl was a businessman from Detroit, Michigan. He served as the city's mayor in 1848.-Biography:Frederick Buhl was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania on November 27, 1806, the second of eleven children...
and Christian H. Buhl
Christian H. Buhl
Christian H. Buhl was a businessman and industrialist from Detroit, Michigan. He served as the city's mayor in 1860-61.-Biography:...
. The Buhls had originally made money in manufacturing, founding the Detroit Locomotive Works and the Buhl Iron Works (later Detroit Copper and Brass). From there they branched into retail opening a hardware store, and property development.
One of Christian's grandsons, Arthur H. Buhl, was president of the buhl Land Company at the time this building was constructed in the 1920s. At the time, demand for office space in Detroit was soaring, and Buhl decided to replace the company's small office building on Griswold with a much larger building. He hired Wirt Roland, who designed a 26-story building where the four lower floors of the building had a rectangular footprint, while the upper floors were in the shape of a cross. The cruciform shape allowed the building to take advantage of natural light and ventilatin, as well as providing a larger number of desirable corner offices. The exterior is sheathed in cream-colored terra cotta. Romanesque and Gothic details on the exterior were created by sculptor Corrado Parducci
Corrado Parducci
Corrado Giuseppe Parducci was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early 20th Century works.-Early life and education:...
.
Murphy Building (155 W. Congress)
42°19′45.5"N 83°2′51"WThe Murphy Building was constructed in 1903 for businessman Simon J. Murphy, who intended the building to house small manufacturing enterprises; it was originally known as the "Murphy Power Building." Simon J. Murphy was a Maine lumberman who made his fortune in timber, oil, and mining. Murphy owned substantial property in downtown Detroit, and established the Murphy Power Company and built this structure shortly before his death in 1905. The original plan for the building was to rent space to manufacturers requiring power and/or steam heat. Murphy's companies also constructed a number of other buildings in the Financial district, including the original Penobscot building which was under construction at the time of Simon Murphy's death. His son William H. Murphy continued the construction of the Penobscot Building, and added two more buildings of the same name, as well as a second Murphy Power Building (now the Marquette Building) in 1906.
The Murphy Building is six stories tall, with a flat roof, and is constructed of brick and terra cotta. The front facade is divided into six bays by piers stretching from the second to fifth stories. Two entrances are in the front facade, one at center left and one in the righthand bay, which at one time was the entrance to a restaurant.
The original tenants of the building included shoe and cigar manufacturing firms. Later tenants were primarily printing and publishing concerns. The Murphy and the next-door Telegraph Building were both renovated, and now share a continuous floor plate and elevator core; the combined building is known as the "Murphy-Telegraph Building."
Telegraph Building (542 Shelby)
42°19′45"N 83°2′52"WThe Telegraph Building is a six-story, flat-roofed office building faced with white terra cotta, constructed in 1913. The street-level storefronts have been renovated with green cast panels and white marble. Above the storefronts, vertical piers frame the large windows that dominate the facade, arranged in four bays on the Congress facade and eight along Shelby. At the top, a frieze and simple cornice surmount the building.
The Telegraph Building originally housed the Detroit hub of Western Union
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
. The Telegraph and the next-door Murphy Building have both been renovated, and now share a continuous floor plate and elevator core; the combined building is known as the "Murphy-Telegraph Building."
Ford Building (615 Griswold)
42°19′48"N 83°2′50"WThe Ford Building is a steel-framed, eighteen-story office building constructed in 1907–1908 by D. H. Burnham & Company
D. H. Burnham & Company
D.H. Burnham and Company of was an architecture firm based in Chicago, Illinois. As successor to Burnham and Root, the name was changed once John Root died in 1891. Root was the chief consulting architect for the World's Columbian Exposition. After Root's death, Daniel Burnham took that title...
for glass manufacturers Edward Ford and his son John B. Ford. The Fords had established the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company (later merging to become Libbey–Owens–Ford) near Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
in 1899, after disinvesting themselves of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company
PPG Industries
PPG Industries is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass and fiber glass. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2010 were $13.4 billion...
founded by Edward's father, John Baptiste Ford
John Baptiste Ford
Captain John Baptiste Ford was an American industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, now known as PPG Industries, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. The Fords constructed this building in Detoit as an investment property after unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate property purchases in Toledo.
The lower two floors of the Ford Building has piers an Ionic columns flanking a central entry. The exterior is covered with terra cotta; bands run above and below the third floor and another band of terra cotta divides the sixteenth and seventeenth floors. The windows of the top floor are arched.
Greater Penobscot Building (635 Griswold)
42°19′49"N 83°2′52"W
The Greater Penobscot Building is a 47-story skyscraper with a steel frame encased in granite and terra cotta. The building was constructed in 1927-29 by Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
of Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls for William H. Murphy and the Simon J. Murphy Company at a cost of $8 million. Simon J. Murphy, William's father, was a Maine lumberman who had constructed the nearby Murphy Building and began the original Penobscot Building before his death in 1905. William followed in his father's footsteps, invesing in diverse industries including early automobile manufacturers. William H. Murphy backed Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
's Detroit Automobile Company
Detroit Automobile Company
The Detroit Automobile Company was an early American automobile manufacturer founded on August 5, 1899, in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first venture of its kind in Detroit. Automotive mechanic Henry Ford attracted the financial backing of three investors; Detroit Mayor William Maybury, William...
. as well as Ford's second venture, the Henry Ford Company
Henry Ford Company
The Henry Ford Company was the second company for Henry Ford, founded November 3, 1901. It resulted from the reorganization of the Detroit Automobile Company, his first unsuccessful attempt at automobile manufacture a year before. In March 1902, Ford left the company following a dispute with his...
(reorganized later as Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
). Murphy also built the New Penobscot Building as well at the Greater Penobscot Building.
The lower six floors of the building are square in plan, and the upper floors are H-shaped, with a series of setbacks starting at the 30th floor which define the silhouette of the top of the building. A 100-foot steel mast sits atop the building. Lighting at night accentuates the shape. The base of the building is clad in grey granite, and the walls above are limestone. Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
detailing is scattered throughout the building.
The Greater Penobscot is the last and largest of the three Penobscot Buildings, and, at 557 feet, was for a brief time the fourth-tallest building in the world. Even so, for fifty years, until the 1977 Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters...
was built, the Penobscot was the tallest building in Detroit. In the 1920s, the building housed the offices of the Guardian Detroit Group, along with their subsidiary banking interests. In the 1930s and 40s, Manufacturer's National Bank of Detroit occupied second-floor space. In the new millennium, the Penobscot stands as a state of the art class-A office building and serves as a hub for the city's wireless
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
zone and fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information...
network.
New Penobscot Building (140–150 W. Congress)
42°19′47"N 83°2′52"WThe New Penobscot Building, a 24-story, flat-roofed building, designed in 1916 by Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier was an architectural firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1880 by John Donaldson and Henry J. Meier the firm produced a large and varied number of commissions in Detroit and southeastern Michigan...
as a second phase of the next-door Penobscot Building. The New Penobscot fronts on West Congress and extends rearward to meet the original Penobscot Building at the alley. The New Penobscot features a Renaissance-inspired theme, with the lower five stories faced with grey granite, and the upper section faced with lighter terra cotta and ashlar. The lower section of the facade contains broad triple windows; the upper part has pairs of double-hung windows. The top four stories are separated from the lower floors by a band of terra cotta with blind reliefs. The entrance is flanked by retail shop windows, and more retail shops are located in the first-floor interior.
Penobscot Building (131 W. Fort)
42°19′48.5"N 83°2′53.2"WThe Penobscot Building on Fort Street is a thirteen-story office tower of brick, terra cotta, and limestone with a flat roof, in 1905–1906 and designed by Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier was an architectural firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1880 by John Donaldson and Henry J. Meier the firm produced a large and varied number of commissions in Detroit and southeastern Michigan...
. This building was the first of three interconnected Penobscot Buildings constructed for William H. Murphy of the Simon J. Murphy Company. The lower three stories of the building are faced in limestone, the middle seven in brick, and the upper three in terra cotta. The facade is divided into five bays, each with a pair of double-hung windows. Corinthian column piers front the eleventh and twelfth stories, and the original building cornice is still in place. The original tenants of the first floor were the Detroit Savings Bank and the Detroit Trust Company.
State Savings Bank Building (151 W. Fort)
42°19′48"N 83°2′54"W
The State Savings Bank is a -story steel-framed, hipped-roof bank building faced with marble. The structure was built in two portions: the front half of the building was constructed in 1900 and designed by McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
, and the rear addition was constructed in 1914 by Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier
Donaldson and Meier was an architectural firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1880 by John Donaldson and Henry J. Meier the firm produced a large and varied number of commissions in Detroit and southeastern Michigan...
. The State Savings Bank was established in 1883, and in 1907 merged with People's Savings Bank to become the People's State Savings Bank. The merged banks used this structure as their headquarters, but by 1914 had outgrown the space, necessitating the construction of the rear addition.
The front facade is divided into three bays, with a center entrance sheltered by an Ionic portico. An aluminum clock-face is set into the building wall above the entrance. A continuous modillion cornice runs along the top of the building, with a balustrade concealing the low hipped roof
Hipped roof
Hipped roof can refer to:*A hip roof, a type of roof where all sides are sloped*A tented roof, a conical style of roof seen in Russian architecture...
. Bronze window units are set in large arched window openings. The interior includes finely crafted Roman arched colonnades with bronze grill work as well as gold-leaf detail on the ceiling in the main room.
The State Savings Bank failed in 1933, and the building was subsequently used by Manufacturer's National Bank of Detroit, and other commercial interests.
Banker's Trust Company Building (205 W. Congress)
42°19′44"N 83°2′53"WThe Bankers Trust Company Building is a two-story steel-frame building designed in 1925 by Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
, chief architect for Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls. Banker's Trust Company was founded in 1917, with offices down the street on Congress before constructing this building.
The building is a faced with terra cotta and includes elaborate exterior Italian Romanesque
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
–style decorations, with massive arched windows designed to admit light to the banking room. The large first-floor arches are echoed on the second floor. Green marble columns topped with lions flank the corner entrance, which once had a revolving door (now removed). The interior has been remodeled multiple times as the structure was used as a bank, brokerage, fast food restaurant, and nightclub.
Merrill Lynch Building (555 Shelby)
42°19′43.7"N 83°2′52.7"WThe Merrill Lynch Building is a three-story commercial building with steel frame and plate glass windows. The building was constructed in 1960 in the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, as an annex to the nearby Banker's Trust Company Building, which at the time housed a Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
brokerage.
Marquette Building (243 W. Congress)
42°19′43.5"N 83°2′55"WThe Marquette Building was originally constructed in 1906 for businessman Simon J. Murphy; substantial renovations were performed in 1916. The building is a ten-story steel-framed office building with a flat roof and faced with red brick, fronting on Congress Street and Washington Boulevard. Cast stone is placed at the base of the building, and bands of terra cotta separate the second and third, and the third and fourth floors. "Marquette Building" is applied in metal letters above the main doors.
US Mortgage Bond Building (607 Shelby)
42°19′45.5"N 83°2′54"WThe US Mortgage Bond Building is a nine-story office building faced with gray limestone and brick. The building was constructed in 1924-25 for the United States Mortgage Bond Company, organized ten years earlier in 1915. The design mixes Italian palazzo, Neoclassical, and Renaissance Revival influences. The lower three stories of the building are finished in broad courses of limestone; the upper floors, finished in smoother limestone, are separated from the lower by a cornice. There are five window bays on the Shelby facade and six on the Congress facade. At some point in the middle 20th century, a pedestrian bridge was built connecting the building to the State Savings Bank across the street.
Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company Building (625 Shelby)
42°19′46"N 83°2′54.5"WThe Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company Building is a two-story limestone and brick bank building constructed in 1912. The Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company was established in 1866.
The facade of this building has four Ionic columns, plus a half-column at each end. The main entrance is between the two central columns, and the window areas between the columns are now filled with dark glass. An entablature, cornice, and balustrade span the top of the building.
220 W. Congress
42°19′45"N 83°2′55"WThe building at 220 W Congress is a steel, five-story office building. It was completely renovated in 1970, adding a front facade of blue- and cream-colored steel with dark glass. This structure is non-contributing.
Detroit Trust Company Building (201 W. Fort)
42°19′47"N 83°2′56"WThe Detroit Trust Company Building is a -story steel-framed bank building originally constructed in 1915 by Albert Kahn. The Detroit Trust Company was founded in 1900; it occupied space in the nearby Penobscot Building before moving into this building. In 1925, Kahn designed a substantial addition, tripling the frontage on Fort Street.
The building is Neoclassical in design, with eight Corinthian pillars
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
and four similar pilasters arranged across the facade. Kahn's design for this building was influenced by McKim, Mead, and White's nearby State Savings Bank. A series of windows interspersed by plaques with foliated details are set in the attic story. The building was modernized in 1964, and the front section between the columns was rebuilt.
The Detroit Trust Company merged with Detroit Bank in the 1950s to form the Detroit Bank and Trust Company, and built the next-door tower at 211 W. Fort. The company changed its name to Comerica Bank in 1982; this building is still an office of Comerica.
Detroit Bank and Trust Tower (211 W. Fort)
42°19′46"N 83°2′57"WThe Detroit Bank and Trust Tower is a steel-frame 28-story tower designed in 1963 by Harley, Ellington, Cowan, and Stirton for Detroit Bank and Trust (now Comerica Bank). The pre-cast concrete forms filled with glass give the building a grid-like appearance. This building does not contribute to the district, but only because it is less than 50 years old.
Dime Building (719 Griswold)
42°19′51"N 83°2′53"WThe Dime Savings Bank Building was built in 1913-14 by D. H. Burnham & Company
D. H. Burnham & Company
D.H. Burnham and Company of was an architecture firm based in Chicago, Illinois. As successor to Burnham and Root, the name was changed once John Root died in 1891. Root was the chief consulting architect for the World's Columbian Exposition. After Root's death, Daniel Burnham took that title...
. The building is a 23-story flat-roofed skyscraper with a U-shaped footprint, with the open end toward Griswold Street. The Dime Savings Bank was organized in 1884 by a group of Detroit businessmen including J. L. Hudson and James E. Scripps
James E. Scripps
James Edmund Scripps was an American newspaper publisher and philanthropist.Scripps was born in 1835 in London to James Mogg Scripps and Ellen Mary Scripps. His father was a bookbinder who came to America in 1844 with six motherless children. Scripps grew up on a Rushville, Illinois, farm...
; their offices were originally on Griswold north of Lafayette. They later moved to the Hammond Building
Hammond Building
The Hammond Building was a high-rise building completed in 1889 at the corner of Griswold Street West Fort Street in the financial district of downtown, Detroit, Michigan. The building was designed by Harry W. J. Edbrooke, and is considered the first historic steel-framed skyscraper in the city,...
, where they stayed until this structure was built.
The most notable feature of the facade is the light well along the front facade; unlike Burhham's nearby Ford Buildings where the well is invisible from the front, the light well of the Dime Building faces Griswold. The lower two floors of the building are clad in brown granite that was applied during a 1950s renovation; the upper floors are clad in the original terra cotta. The upper three stories are differeintialed from the main body of the building by a different window treatment. The Dime was fully renovated in 2002, including an impressive treatment of the skylight opening up to the light well.
The Dime Savings Bank originally occupied a three-story banking room in the center of the building and used the upper floors for office space.
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building (160 W. Fort)
42°19′50"N 83°2′55"W
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch consists of two parts: a -story Neoclassical marble bank building built in 1923 and an eight-story International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
annex built in 1949–1951. The original building was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, & White; the addition (and later renovation) was done by Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, buildings 1 and 2. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century...
. Yamasaki's bold addition was on the leading edge of Modern architecture.
The floor plates of the two buildings are aligned, as the interior of the original building was gutted with the annex was built.
Security Trust Company Building (735 Griswold)
42°19′52"N 83°2′53.5"WThe Security Trust Company is a seven-story bank building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1925. Security Trust was established in 1906, and two years later moved to the corner of Griswold and Fort Streets, just south of where this building was constructed.
The front facade has columns flanking three four-story tall arches. The columns are finished with elabortately carved human and animal motifs. In 1964, the original gable atop the building was removed and a two-story flat-roofed addition was placed atop the building. The addition is clad with cast concrete panels.
First State Bank Building (751 Griswold)
42°19′52.5"N 83°2′54"WThe First State Bank Building is a four-story, flat-roofed bank building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1924-25. First State Bank began life in 1871 as the "German American Bank" with offices on Larned; the bank moved at least twice more before building this structure.
The main entrance of the building is surrounded with carved marble depicting urns, animals, and foliage. The building is located at the corner of Griswold and Lafayette Streets, and has decorative facades facing both streets. Each facade has three-story Ionic columns supporting the attic story, on the upper story, double-hung windows are grouped in pairs, separated by elaborate plaques. A parapet runs across the roofline.
Theodore Levin United States Courthouse (231 W. Lafayette)
42°19′49"N 83°2′58.5"WThe Theodore Levin United States Courthouse is a ten-story federal courthouse, steel-framed and clad in limestone. The building was constructed in 1932-34, and designed by Branson V. Gambler and Robert O. Derrick. It stands on an entire city block. The building stands on a black granite base, and relief carvings of eagles and other symbols are above the entrance. The upper three stories are set back slightly from the remainder of the building. The interior of the building features fine detailing and plaster stencilwork.
Detroit Free Press Building (321 W. Lafayette)
42°19′48"N 83°3′3"WThe Detroit Free Press Building is a fourteen-story flat-roofed building with a steel frame faced with limestone. The building was designed by Albert Kahn and erected in 1925. The building is designed using the then-popular technique of a central mass with six-story wings to each side. On the exterior, medallions inset into the building depict historical newsmen. A restaurant and other retail spaces are located on the Lafayette Boulevard facade.
See also
- Griswold StreetGriswold StreetGriswold Street is a major north-south street in downtown Detroit, which passes through the city's Financial District lined with many of its most familiar and recognizable structures, such as the Guardian Building and One Woodward Avenue...
- List of buildings located along Woodward Avenue, Detroit
External links
- Buhl Building official website
- Dime Building website
- Ford Building official website
- Guardian Building official website
- Penobscot Building complex official website
- 400 Monroe Associates, owners of the Marquette Building and the Murphy-Telegraph Building
- Louis Aguilar, "National Historic designation may boost Detroit Financial District," The Detroit News, January 23, 2010