Ford Building

Among Detroit’s first skyscrapers, the nineteen-story Ford Building was built between 1907 and 1909. The Chicago architectural firm Daniel H. Burnham and Company designed it and two other Detroit buildings, the Majestic and the Dime. One of the first buildings in Detroit to utilize a steel frame, the edifice is sheathed in terra cotta and accented with Italian marble. The 250-foot-tall structure was the tallest building in Detroit for several years. Named after Toledo based glass manufacturer Edward Ford (1843-1920), it served Detroit’s Financial District and housed several of the city’s leading legal firms. During the 1926 Ossian Sweet trials, Clarence Darrow led the defense from offices on the seventeenth floor.