Historic Detroit

Every building in Detroit has a story — we're here to share it

Art Stove Co. Building

This headquarters and showroom was built for the Art Stove Co., one of several stove manufacturers located in Detroit in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This one was located in Milwaukee Junction, an early industrial area of the city and the birthplace of the U.S. auto industry.

But importantly, this building is also one of the last surviving pieces of Detroit's proud past of pumping out stoves.

This building was designed by George Hunt Ingraham, "a young architect who recently came here from Boston," the Detroit Free Press wrote Jan. 28, 1907, in announcing the start of construction on the 14,738-square-foot building. Ingraham was mostly a residential architect, and didn't design many structures in Detroit.

The contractor on the building was John Finn, and the building was expected to cost $40,000 and be finished by June 1, 1907. The two-story building has a frontage of about 75 feet along Russell Street and 120 along Milwaukee Avenue. It has a concrete foundation, brick walls with stone trim, and steel interior construction. Art Stove's offices occupied the ground floor, and its showroom was on the second floor.

The headquarters rose across the street from Art Stove's factory, and the manufacturer also had a nearby warehouse.

Art Stove offered a money-back guarantee on its products and managed to go hold its own against Detroit's two larger stove manufacturers, Detroit Stove Works and Peninsular Stove Co. However, it would be bought out by Detroit Stove Works in 1923. With no need for the smaller facility, Detroit Stove Works sold the Art Stove property to an industrial real estate broker, Frank L. Bromley Properties, two years later. The building would house a number of firms over the ensuing six decades or so. In the meantime, Art Stove's factory was demolished in the 1960s for the Chrysler Freeway.

On Feb. 20, 2007, the building was sold for $225,000 to an entity named Houston Holding Group, which had a Detroit post office box listed for its mailing address. As of Jan. 18, 2023, the property was listed as being subject to foreclosure, and facing an uncertain fate.