Penobscot Building

Once the tallest building in Detroit, and Michigan, the Penobscot is something that people from all around can recognize when driving into Detroit. You know the giant red ball when it lights up? Yea, that’s the Penobscot Building.

It is my second favorite building in Detroit, behind the famed train station, Michigan Central Station.

It was built in 1928, by the same person who designed the Guardian Building, Wirt C. Rowland. This time, he didn’t use bricks, but he did use the same architectural design, Art Deco.

The Penobscot Building lit up at night.

The name Penobscot is actually a Native American tribe in New England. But you might be surprised that there is more than just one Penobscot Building. There are actually three. This is one just the tallest and most famous of the three.

A 13-story building was built in the early 1900s, and then about a dozen years later, the 47-story Penobscot you see to the left was built. Over $5 million was put into the project at the time and it was known as the Greater Penobscot Building.

$5 million in 1916 is worth about over $100 million today. The Penobscot was the tallest building in Detroit until the Renaissance Center was built in 1977.

When it was built, it was the eighth largest building in the world, and fourth-tallest in the United States in 1928.

WJR once held it’s main offices in the Penobscot and the red light you see on the top is for aircrafts to see.

There are more pictures on the HistoricDetroit.org page.

The Guardian Building

The Guardian Building was built back before the Stock Market crashed for a bank, the Union Trust Bank. The Art Deco masterpiece was designed by Wirt C. Rowland using 1.8 million orange bricks. Many of the buildings around the area were of limestone, but this stood out. It used so many different elements from steel, to brick, to ceramic tiles and pewabic tiles to tiffany glass.

The Guardian Building is bordered by Griswold, Larned, and Congress streets, one block off Woodward Ave.

Marble graces the lobby, along with a beautiful mural of Michigan and a Tiffany glass clock. When it opened, it was only open for 9 months for the Union Trust Bank. Surprisingly, it’s possible in one of the majestic meeting rooms that it was decided to call the President and tell him to shut down all of the banks.

Years later, during World War II, it was used as a command center for the Army.

It changed hands after the war many times, until it found a new tenant in 2007; Wayne County.

They moved their offices from the former Old Wayne County Building on Randolph, a building we will look at later in the semester.

They have since stayed in the building, but are now looking at moving back into their old digs. What will happen to the Guardian Building?

The lobby of the Guardian Building featuring the beautiful mural of Michigan. (Photo Credit: Mlive.com)

Well, right now they have several tenants other than just Wayne County, but it will be hard to fill.

Be sure to take a look at the HistoricDetroit.org page on the Guardian Building too.

You can visit their website at www.guardianbuilding.com