The Elliott-Larsen Building is a state government office in downtown

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

, named after Democratic State Representative

Daisy Elliott Daisy L. Elliott (November 26, 1917 – December 22, 2015) was an American politician and realtor from the state of Michigan. Early life Elliott was born Daisy Elizabeth Lenoir in Filbert, West Virginia, and resided in Detroit, Michigan. She was ...

and Republican State Representative Melvin Larsen, primary sponsors of the

Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), or Public Act 453 of 1976, which went into effect in 1977, originally prohibited discrimination in Michigan only on the basis of "religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, famil ...

. It was formerly known as the Lewis Cass Building, named after territorial governor

Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was a United States Army officer and politician. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He was also the 1 ...

. It is the Michigan state government's oldest standing office building. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places as "State Office Building" in 1984.

History

The first state office building in Lansing was constructed in 1853; this was replaced with another building in 1872 and demolished the following year. By the 1910s, the state realized the need for a new office building, and funds were appropriated beginning in 1917 for a new structure. Architect Edwyn A. Bowd of Lansing was commissioned to design the building, and plans were approved in 1918. Construction commenced in 1919 on the

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

style building, and was completed in 1921. On February 8, 1951, the building was intentionally set on fire by a state office employee. The following morning, part of the seventh floor collapsed down to the next level, which destroyed a large number of state historical records. In the reconstruction, the seventh floor was removed. The building served as the primary state office building until the completion of the first part of a new state government complex in 1953. The building remains in use by the state. On June 30, 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the renaming of the building as the Elliott-Larsen Building in honor of

and Melvin L. Larsen, the lawmakers who sponsored Michigan's bipartisan civil rights law of 1976.

Description

The Elliott-Larsen Building is a six-story (originally seven-story) U-shaped

structure with a flat roof, with a facade of cream-colored sandstone above a granite basement. A

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

separates the second and third floors, forming a base for four-story

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s with Tuscan capitals above. An

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

with cornice runs above the pilasters. As originally built, the building had three arched entrances. After the 1951 fire, two entrances were removed, and the main entrance completely rebuilt as a projecting gray granite entryway.

Government agencies

State of Michigan government agencies located in Elliot-Larsen Building: *Department of Technology, Management and Budget *Department of Health & Human Services *Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity

References

External links

*http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=54437 *http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=57550 *http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=61157 *http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=61971 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Neoclassical architecture in Michigan Buildings and structures completed in 1919 Buildings and structures in Lansing, Michigan State government buildings in the United States Government buildings in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Lansing, Michigan Name changes due to the George Floyd protests {{Michigan-NRHP-stub