Detroit Financial District

The building was constructed for Simon J. Murphy (see significance statement) and originally known as the Murphy Power Building. It initially housed a small power plant in the basement that provided power for business operations renting space in the building and also electric power and steam heating for buildings in a nearby service area. The 1903 directory shows the building then housing shoe and cigar manufacturing operations in addition to printing businesses. Succeeding directories through the later 1910s list primarily printing and publishing businesses.

The Detroit Financial District comprises the historic office and financial heart of Detroit. Located near the center of downtown Detroit and bounded on the east by Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main street, the district contains thirty-six buildings, all but one constructed between 1900 and 1964. Occupying about eight blocks in a grid-plan section of the downtown, the district is dominated by large and small bank and office buildings but also contains several other downtown buildings of historic significance, including the block large Federal Building, Detroit Free Press Building, and Detroit Fire Department Headquarters. The district's most visually prominent features are its bank/office towers. Dating largely from the 1910s and 20s but also including Modernist late 1950s and early 1960s landmark buildings by Yamasaki and Albert Kalm's firm, the district's bank/office towers include most of Michigan's outstanding examples of these buildings. Together they provide much of the form to today's Detroit skyline.