The Harmonie Centre, also known as the Breitmeyer–Tobin Building, is an eight-story commercial building located at 1308 Broadway Street (at the corner of Broadway and Gratiot) in

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a Neighborhoods in Detroit, residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Michigan high ...

. It is part of the Broadway Avenue Historic District. It is also known as the Tobin Building. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. The ''east necklace'' of downtown links Grand Circus and the stadium area to

Greektown Greektown is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Greeks or people of Greek ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. History The oldest Greek dominated neighborhood outside of Greece were probably the Fener in Istan ...

along Broadway. The east necklace contains a sub-district sometimes called the ''Harmonie Park District,'' which has taken on the renowned legacy of Detroit's music from the 1930s through the 1950s and into the present.

History

The Breitmeyer–Tobin Building was built in 1906 P. 48. for John Breitmeyer Sons, Florists, who were at the time the leading florists in Detroit.Breitmeyer-Tobin Building
from the city of Detroit The firm's president,

Philip Breitmeyer Philip Breitmeyer (May 13, 1864 – November 8, 1941) was a florist, one of the founders of Florists' Telegraph Delivery (now Florists' Transworld Delivery, or FTD), and the mayor of Detroit, Michigan. Biography Philip Breitmeyer was born i ...

, served as the mayor of Detroit from 1909 to 1911. In 1926, the ownership of the building was transferred to the Peninsular Bank Company, and the building was renamed the Peninsular Bank Building. The bank failed,Breitmeyer-Tobin Building
from Detroit1701.org and ten years later, in the depths of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the building was 75% unoccupied; the main tenant was the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, who occupied the top floor. Metropolitan was notable for its willingness to write small insurance policies for African Americans. At around the same time, the owners of the building opened up office space to rental by African Americans; the building was one of the first downtown to do so. In 1944, Benjamin Tobin acquired the building, renamed it the Breitmeyer–Tobin Building, and marketed the office space to black professionals. Notable African American firms had offices in the building, including the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Founded in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids (commonly referred to as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation o ...

(the largest Black union in America at the time); P. 22. the law firm of Loomis, Jones, Piper and Colden; attorney Harold Bledsoe; optometrists William H. and Lloyd Lawson; and future judges

Damon Keith Damon Jerome Keith (July 4, 1922 – April 28, 2019) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Dist ...

and Hobart Taylor Jr. The building has recently been refurbished, with commercial space on the first floor and various offices in the upper floors.

Description

The eight-story building, designed by the architectural firm of Raseman & Fischer, is an unusual Beaux-Arts building from the turn of the century.Beth L. Savage, Carol D. Shull, United States National Park Service, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, Preservation Press
''African American historic places,'' John Wiley and Sons, 1995, , , pp. 285–286. It includes glazed

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

elements.

References

{{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit African-American history in Detroit Office buildings in Detroit Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Buildings and structures completed in 1905 Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Floral industry 1905 establishments in Michigan

History

Description

See also

References