Undetected Water Break May Signal End for Historic Art Deco Skyscraper

When built in 1929, the David Stott building cost $3.5 million. Building the same structure today would cost about $46.3 million. (Photo via Creative Commons)

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A bitter cold snap and a water main break that went undetected for several days could be the end for one of Detroit’s architectural gems, the David Stott skyscraper that towers over the downtown intersection of Griswold and State streets.

After a water main broke on the ninth floor, more than 2 million gallons of water flooded four of the 38 flours of the Art Deco building named after Detroit flour king David Stott, WDIV-TV reports. That’s enough water to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Justin Reynolds of the Detroit Fire Department said “there’s an easy six-foot worth of water” downstairs. Water was spilling out onto the sidewalk and street and quickly froze, creating “a sheet of ice” in temperatures that have struggled to make it out of the single digits, Reynolds said.

The iconic building, which has graced the city’s skyline since 1929, may not be salvageable. The fourth-tallest building in downtown Detroit, the Stott is constructed of reddish-orange brick, faced on the first three floors with marble, according to the historicdetroit.org website.

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The tower cost $3.5 million when it was built in 1929. In today’s dollars, the cost of the same construction would be about $46.3 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The building has weathered a troubled history. The Depression wiped out most of the Stott family’s wealth, prompting court battles and the sale of the ornate tower in 1930 for only $1 above the $1.3 million mortgage.

Three years later, courts were asked to settle a squabble among Stott’s seven children, who questioned their father’s competency and his decision to build a skyscraper in such troubled economic times.

“The specific instance of claimed incompetency which the minority stress is in the erection and financing of the David Stott Building,” the court wrote at the time. “Because of the turn of business in 1929, the building may have been a mistake.

“In any event, it was no greater error than a multitude of shrewd business men made at the time. The testimony does not identify any person, anywhere, who sensed and appraised the coming Depression and fully put his home in order.”

Many of the Stott’s tenants fled after the 1967 Detroit Race Riot, but several remained.

The Stott building was hit hard during The Great Recession. The ornate lobby was preserved, but many of the elevators weren’t working when the building was finally closed in 2010.

A developer purchased the building in September 2010 with plans to redevelop the building for housing, retail and office space. The $67.4 million project never happened as envisioned, and the building was sold for $8.95 million on Sept. 12, 2013.