Cobbs and Mitchell Building

In 1905 George D. Mason of Detroit designed this brick and limestone building as a showplace for the products of Cobbs and Mitchell, Incorporated, a nationally known lumber company. Completed in 1907, the building’s interior is finished in nine varieties of native Michigan wood—elm, white maple, bird’s eye maple, sap birch, red birch, curly red birch, red beech, red oak, and hemlock. The company was named for Jonathan W. Cobbs (1828 1898) and William W. Mitchell (1854 1915). Their families were prime movers in the growth of the city of Cadillac and developed much of northern Michigan’s lumber industry. The building also housed the Mitchell Brothers Company and other lumbering interests before it was purchased by the State Highway Department in 1939.