Mabley & Company Building

620 Woodward – Mabley & Company – Two now combined iron and wood-frame four-story brick commercial buildings (1876-80). Silas Farmer’s History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan (1889) depicts a row of five buildings, with these two at its south end, as the “Clothing, hat, cap and furnishing stores of Mabley & Company, 122 to 134 Woodward Avenue, East side. Built in 1876-1880.” The drawing (p. 771) depicts the row topped by a cornice and arched-motif balustrade, with low gabled treatments atop the second store in from each end. Along with all of this roofline ornament, hooded window trim and other detailing is now missing. City permit records indicate a major alteration occurred in 1918. The first floor storefronts have been renovated, and the brick has been painted a cream color. Farmer (770-73) describes the Mabley & Co. department store as then “the largest retail establishment in Michigan,” occupying these five stores plus additional ones directly across Woodward (gone). Nos. 620-30 housed men’s and boys’ clothing and hats and caps, while the buildings across the streets offered women’s clothing, boots and shoes, jewelry, toys, books, pottery, crockery, glassware, etc.”