T. B. Rayl Company Building

This building is one of downtown Detroit’s unrecognized gems. Architectural historian W. Hawkins Ferry features a photo and text on this building in his book, The Buildings of Detroit:

“The firm of Baxter, O’Dell and Halpin was also influenced by Sullivan in the design for the T. B. Rayl Company building erected in 1915 on the corner of Woodward and Grand River avenues. The red terra cotta exterior with its rich surface ornament, the slender piers terminating in arcades, and cavetto cornice [now missing] harked back to Sullivan’s Guaranty Building (1895) in Buffalo.”⁹⁹

The Guarantee Building by Louis H. Sullivan is recognized as a landmark in architectural design. Sullivan emphasized ornament on an exterior completely sheathed in red terra cotta. The designs are stylized foliate patterns that extend from the ground floor to the thirteenth-story attic. Sullivan also differentiated three separate sections of the building: base, shaft, and capital — the same tripartite divisions of a classical column.¹⁰⁰

1400 Woodward was initially constructed as the T. B. Rayl & Co. Store. Rayl’s sold “hardware” which at that time meant everything from sleds and ice skates to mantle pieces, tool chests, cutlery, and toy banks. The art nouveau decorative design of the exterior was a reflection of the decorative elements homeowners could purchase at Rayl’s.

Liggett’s Drug Store originally occupied the western half of the first floor space, and Rayl’s had the eastern half in addition to the second story. A newspaper article from 1915 noted that “The northeast corner of Woodward and Grand River avenues has been occupied as a drug store since long before the civil war.”¹⁰¹ The article also noted that the new building would replace two old three-story structures.

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⁹⁹ Ferry, W. Hawkins, The Buildings of Detroit, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1968, pp. 185. ¹⁰⁰ Roth, Leland M., A Concise History of American Architecture, Harper & Row, New York, 1979, pp. 182. ¹⁰¹ “T. B. Rayl Company Leases Woodward Corner for Store,” The Detroit Free Press, May 2, 1915, pp. 20.

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United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

Section number: 7  Page: 58

In the 1930’s, Lloyd’s Furs occupied the second floor, and attracted attention with elaborate neon horizontal signage over the Liggett’s Drug Store signage. Also in the 1930’s Sobel and Drielsma, architects, constructed new storefront in the northern 20 feet of the Woodward side of the building. It was a moderne deco storefront for Sally Frocks, done in shiny black Carrara glass held in place by aluminum supports. This renovation was featured in The Architectural Record in 1935. Apparently Sullivanesque styling was considered expendable at that time. The 1952 Sanborn Map shows Robinson’s Women’s Specialty Shop in the entire building.

Detroit architect Ted Rogvoy designed renovations to the interior and exterior of the building in 1956 for the Meyer Jewelry Company. Rogvoy designed a gray granite first floor storefront with large plate glass windows. The upper three floors of windows were filled in with lighter red colored tiles. Little gold treasure chests (symbol of the Meyer Treasure Chest of Jewels) still decorate the tiles in the center of those lower windows. Rogvoy also added a 1950’s style contemporary clock that projects from the southwest corner of the second story of the building. At some later point, black granite was placed on the northern storefront that had previously been renovated for Sally’s Frocks.

After Meyer Jewelry Company left, a retail clothing business called A. J. Men’s Wear (Big Men, Shoes, Watches), occupied only the first floor space until it moved to 1225 Woodward (the Fowler Building). Today the building-owner’s business, Eastern Wigs, has been operating on only the first floor since September 1997.

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¹⁰² AIA Monthly Bulletin, Michigan Society of Architects.

Building #22 1400 Woodward T. B. Rayl Co. Building (Meyer’s Jewelry Store) Architects: Baxter, O’Dell & Halpin 1915 Original Address: 208 Woodward and 3 East Grand River

Description The T. B. Rayl Co. Building is located at the northeast corner of Woodward and Grand River directly north of the J. L. Hudson Building site.

The architects arranged the Woodward façade of the building into three bays of windows with three narrow windows in each. The seventh story windows (originally the top floor’s windows) were joined into arches to create an effect similar to Gothic tracery. The mullions between the windows in each bay were designed as slender piers terminating in an arcade of arches.

The southern façade of the building on Grand River has five bays of windows in the same arrangement. The original windows are intact on floors five through seven: a long, narrow window with a transom, and both are divided in half to create four panes in each window.

The Rayl Building is Detroit’s best example of art nouveau Sullivanesque architecture. The square red terra cotta tiles that make up the skin of this building are designed with a raised foliated pattern of stylized leaves on each. This type of tile design work had a very short time frame of production and of popularity.

Unfortunately, the structure has undergone many changes over time. At some point before the 1930’s, an eighth story was added to what was originally a seven-story building. The same color tile was used on the addition, but the tripartite design of the structure was irreversibly altered. The addition’s windows are arranged in three bays, as are the original windows below, but the new square windows are double hung and an entirely different shape than the originals. Finally, the beautiful curved cavetto cornice was removed in the early 1990’s.