The Edwin S. George Building, built in 1908, is located at 4612

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

in Midtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

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 ...

, at the corner of Woodward and Garfield. In 1914, the name was changed to the Garfield Building. It was 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 ...

in 1993.

History

Edwin S. George was an important businessman in Detroit at the turn of the 20th century.Garfield Building
from Detroit1701.org. He first came to Detroit in 1890 and worked as a furrier, opening his own wholesale and retail fur company in 1897. He became involved in Detroit's automobile industry and was an important developer of the stretch of Woodward between

Grand Circus Park The Grand Circus Park Historic District contains the Grand Circus Park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan that connects the theatre district with its financial district. It is bisected by Woodward Avenue, four blocks north of Campus Martius Park, ...

and Warren Avenue. In 1908, George hired architect Albert Kahn to design a two-story building which would include rental space for auto parts suppliers and manufacturers. This building opened as the Edwin S. George Building. In 1914, George had three additional floors added to the building (also designed by KahnGarfield Building
from State of Michigan Historic Preservation.) and changed the name to the Garfield building. George owned the building until 1942, when he sold it to a real estate investment firm.

Wayne County Community College Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) is a public community college district with its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1967 and has six campuses: Eastern, Downtown, Downriver, Northwest, Western, and University Squar ...

used the Garfield Building in the 1970s. The building was converted to condominiums in 2000, and became known as the Lofts at Garfield.

Architecture

The original Edwin S. George Building was a two-story square building with a flat roof, with a white glazed

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

facade. Embellishments were added to make the building attractive. The additional three floors added in 1914 are architecturally consistent with the lower floors.

References

External links

Garfield Building
from the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department.

from Model D. {{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Buildings and structures completed in 1908 National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Historic district contributing properties in Michigan 1908 establishments in Michigan Albert Kahn (architect) buildings