The Rood Building is a commercial building in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. It was built in 1873 for Charles Conant Rood, after whom the building is named.

History

The Rood Building was built in 1873 for attorney and investor Charles Conant Rood. It replaced a three-story building at the site, also owned by Rood, which had burned down in October 1872. It was designed by Grand Rapids architect

William G. Robinson William George "Bill" Robinson was an American politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Early life Robinson was born on March 10, 1926, in Boston to George and Muriel (Bumstead) Robinson. He grew up in Boston and Mald ...

. Over the years, the building's tenants have generally consisted of offices or residences and at least one restaurant. The building underwent renovations in the 1980s, which included the installation of a wooden replica

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and an addition that filled in the angle of the building's original "L" shape. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1988.

Architecture

The Rood Building is a four-story timber frame structure clad in brick. It is the only surviving High Victorian Gothic commercial building in Grand Rapids and one of only a few High Victorian buildings in the city. The building originally had an L-shaped layout; the head of the "L" formed the narrow facade on Pearl Street and the foot of the "L" had a couple storefronts on a former pedestrian walkway. An addition built in the 1980s filled in the angle of the "L" and houses an elevator and stairwell. The Pearl Street facade is divided into three bays; the central bay is three windows wide and the two narrower bays on each side have one window each. The facade is topped by a large

bearing the year of construction, 1873. The cornice was originally made of iron, but it deteriorated and the last part was removed by the late 1970s; it was replaced with a replica made of painted wood.

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