United Way Community Services Building

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The United Way Community Services Building is a historic 12-story office tower in downtown Detroit at 1212 Griswold Street, in the Capitol Park district. Built from 1892 to 1895 and designed by Spier & Rohns, it was Michigan’s tallest building at the time and one of Detroit’s first with a steel skeleton. The lower two floors are brown rusticated stone with the main entrance on the south side; upper floors are smooth stone and tan brick. A top cornice was removed in the 1950s. An interior light court was filled in 1988 to add space and was glassed over.

Originally called the Chamber of Commerce Building, it also housed Detroit Savings Bank (later Detroit Bank and Trust, Comerica). It was one of Detroit’s oldest skyscrapers.

The building was owned by United Way of Southeastern Michigan from 1987 to 2009, then bought by the city’s redevelopment agency for $1.75 million. In 2013, the Archdiocese of Detroit moved offices into part of the building after renovations by Capitol Park Partners. In 2015 the chancery moved into the lower six floors, with residences above, and a new cornice was added as part of the restoration. There were also plans to restore the Detroit Savings Bank Building name.