Century Building and Little Theatre

The Century Building and Little Theater's significance is primarily architectural. The vaguely Medieval building, designed by George D. Mason, still one of the leading architects in Detroit at the time after a career of more than fifty years, is an Arts-and-Crafts landmark in a city replete with Arts-and-Crafts landmarks dating from the 1920s period of growth and prosperity such as The Players, Pewabic Pottery, and the Guardian Building. The theater, a shambles when the building was listed in the national register, was fully restored in 1990-91. Moved, the building will retain its architectural significance.

The Century Building and Little Theater currently stands on the south corner of Columbia and Witherell, one block east of Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main street. Its primary facade faces Columbia. Columbia is paved in brick and closed to traffic. Several large early twentieth-century buildings, including a hotel and former YWCA building, stand nearby, but parking lots make up much of the surroundings. A parking lot separates the building from Woodward. Two blocks in one direction and one block in the other on the same side of Woodward are the Gothic Revival St. John's Episcopal and Central United Methodist churches, both listed in the national register. Across Woodward Avenue are the very large Fox Theater Building and Francis Palms Building/State Theater, both of which are listed in the national register. In the next block to the southeast on the same side of Woodward as the Century Building is the Elwood Bar, also listed in the national register. Most other property nearby now contains parking lots. The site to which the building will be moved is located approximately four blocks to the east, still within downtown Detroit. The building will be located to the east of the Detroit Athletic Club, an early twentieth-century Renaissance Revival social clubhouse building designed by Albert Kahn that approaches the Fox and Palms buildings in size, on the northwest side of Madison Street. The Art Deco Music Hall Building stands directly across the street. These buildings give the neighborhood around the new site an entertainment/recreation ambience similar to the area from which the building will be moved. The Century Building/Little Theater will occupy a street corner location, as it does at its current location, and will be positioned directly on the sidewalk line as it is in its current location.