![Exterior Art Deco Terracotta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Exterior_Art_Deco_Terracotta.jpg)
The Paterson Building is a historic office building located at 653
South Saginaw Street and Third Street in Downtown
Flint, Michigan
Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
. It was built by
William A. Paterson
William A. Paterson (October 3, 1838 – September 8, 1921) was born in Canada in 1838 and arrived in Flint, Michigan in 1868. He established the W. A. Paterson Company, a carriage-manufacturer. One of the original stockholders of Buick Motor Com ...
of the
W. A. Paterson Company who first built carriages starting in 1869. He switched to manufacturing automobiles in 1909, and the company built well-regarded automobiles until 1923.
The building was damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1931 in the
art deco style
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
.
[{{cite book , last1=Flinn , first1=Gary , title=Hidden History of Flint , date=2017 , publisher=The History Press , location=Charleston, SC , page=48 , isbn=9781625858412 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxLiDgAAQBAJ&q=paterson+building+flint&pg=PA48] The Paterson building had been owned by Thomas W. Collison Jr. of the Collison Family for 30 years under their parent corporation Thomas W. Collison & Co., Inc. It was sold in 2019 to NBA basketball star Morris Peterson's Flintstone Investment Group. It has three office floors with a full garage in the basement level. The building consists of mainly law and medical offices. There are also retail stores on the Third Street side. The building rich Art Deco has been maintained throughout the interior and exterior of the building.
References
Buildings and structures in Flint, Michigan
Art Deco architecture in Michigan
Office buildings completed in 1931