The Frederick Stearns Building is a manufacturing plant located at 6533 East Jefferson Avenue in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1980 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1981. It has been converted to condominiums.Frederick Stearns & Company Building
from Detroit1701.org

History

Frederick Stearns & Company, established in 1855,
history page was a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in 19th century Detroit. In the late 1890s,

Frederick K. Stearns Frederick Kimball Stearns (December 6, 1854 – June 7, 1924) was an American businessman who was the president of Frederick Stearns & Company, a pharmaceutical manufacturing business, from 1887 to 1921. He was also the organizer of the Detroit O ...

(son of the firm's founder, Frederick A. Stearns) commissioned William B. Stratton to design this building (Stratton also designed Stearns's personal home, the

Frederick K. Stearns House The Frederick K. Stearns House is a historic inn located at 8109 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, directly adjacent to the Arthur M. Parker House. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Description The Fr ...

, a few years later).Stearns, Frederick K., House
from the state of Michigan Construction was completed in 1899 at a cost of $85,000. It originally contained Stearns's production facilities, as well as warehouses and white-collar offices. The building was converted into condominiums in 1989, and is now known as the Lofts at Rivertown.

Description

The building was originally three stories in height; a fourth floor was added later. The original building, with its upper story addition, is constructed from brick. The façade is symmetric, with projecting pavilions at each end and another in the center; this front section, which housed the company offices, is 13 bays wide and five bays deep. The center pavilion contains an arched stone entryway and a clock on the third floor. Each window in the Jefferson façade is trimmed with limestone. Fourth-floor gables above the end pavilions add to the appeal of the building. A taller concrete addition, the top of which can be seen from Jefferson, was built around 1910. P. 244. This addition was designed by Albert Kahn.Fredrick Stearns & Company Building
from the city of Detroit

References

External links

The Lofts at Rivertown
{{Industrial landmarks in metropolitan Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Industrial buildings completed in 1899 Michigan State Historic Sites 1899 establishments in Michigan