''The'' Penobscot Building is the original 13-story building of the Penobscot Block complex in

downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ( ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It is the first Penobscot Building, and one of three buildings of the same name in the later-constructed complex. It is located at 131 West Fort Street, within the

Detroit Financial District The Detroit Financial District is a United States 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 ...

History

The Penobscot Building was designed by

Donaldson and Meier Donaldson and Meier was an architectural firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1880 by John M. Donaldson (1854–1941) and Henry J. Meier (1858–1917), the firm produced a large and varied number of commissions in Detroit and ...

in the Beaux-Arts style, and incorporates

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

into its materials. Construction began in 1904 and was completed in 1905. P. 92. Its building was financed by prominent Detroit businessmen, including lumberman Simon J. Murphy, Sr.

Architecture

The lower three stories of the building are faced in limestone, the middle seven in brick, and the upper three in terra cotta. The façade is divided into five bays, each with a pair of double-hung windows.

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

piers front the eleventh and twelfth stories, and the original building cornice has been removed.

Present day

The present day use of the

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

is primarily for

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

shops and services. It is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the Detroit Financial Historic District, and 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 ...

References

External links

Official Penobscot Building website

Google Maps location of The Penobscot Building
* * Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan Historic district contributing properties in Michigan Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Beaux-Arts architecture in Michigan Office buildings completed in 1905 1905 establishments in Michigan {{Detroit-struct-stub

History

Architecture

Present day

See also

References

External links