Stroh Tower/Michigan Mutual Building

The Grand Circus Park Historic District national register nomination correctly notes that the Adams Theater bridges the mid-block alley between Adams and Elizabeth streets and delineates the district boundary to include the portion of the theater building located on Elizabeth Street north of the alley. The original nomination missed a similar situation at the neighboring Stroh Tower/Michigan Mutual Building in which an 'annex' to that building is located on the north side of the alley and is connected to the main building by a bridge over the alley. The Stroh/Mutual Building's Elizabeth Street Annex is an addition that should be included in the historic district and not a separate, non-contributing building for the following reasons:

The addition is connected to the original building at floors 2 through 10 by a substantial bridge over the alley. The bridge provides restrooms that serve both the addition and the original building. The addition was constructed to provide support office space, lunchroom, and parking for the executive offices that were located in the original building. The addition relies on the original building for its primary access. The addition only has a secondary lobby facing Elizabeth Street. All tenants in the original building and addition use the Adams Street address. The main electrical service to both buildings is in the basement of the addition. Steam service for both the addition and the original building feeds through the original building. Emergency egress for floors 2 through 10 of the original building is through the addition. When the addition and bridge were constructed, the fire escape was removed from the lower ten stories of the original building. The building is commonly known as a single building. The building has been marketed through the years as a single building. The building was recently purchased as a single building.

The Stroh Tower/Michigan Mutual Building was constructed in 1920. It is a twenty-story highrise structure clad in buff brick with limited terra cotta trim. More extensive terra cotta trim was removed and replaced with buff brick when the building was remodeled in the 1950s. Its aluminum storefronts and massive stucco canopy date from the 1970s. The windows at the second floor consist of shallow bays with double hung windows flanking a fixed sash. The windows at floors 3 through 18 are wood double-hung, 3-over-1 units. Floors 19 and 20 were added in 1950s, replacing a rooftop gazebo. These floors are clad in buff brick and aluminum panels in a simplified Art Deco style. The windows are of aluminum. The building faces south. The first and second floors have a rectangular footprint measuring eighty feet four inches wide and one hundred feet deep. Floors 3 through 18 are L-shaped with a light well at the northwest quadrant. A penthouse at floors 19 and 20 is set back approximately two feet from the east, west and south elevations and approximately twenty feet from the north elevation with a roof-top veranda at the 19th floor. The Elizabeth Street Annex, constructed in 1950, is ten stories in height and is comprised of six floors of office/service space above four floors of parking. The annex has a rectangular footprint measuring 120 feet by ninety feet. It is clad in buff-colored brick with aluminum ribbon windows at the north and south elevations. The annex has a simple aluminum canopy at the entry to a small lobby at the northwest corner. The building has no decorative trim. It is connected to the Stroh Tower/Michigan Mutual Building to the south across an alley by a bridge connecting floors 2 through 10.