Today's building, part of the Majestic Monday series,was constructed in 1896 and was, for the first 7 year's of its existence the tallest building in Detroit standing at 223ft or 68 metres.
It's original owner was Christopher R. Mabley who was a bit of a local character and household name. His strong of shops and department stores throughout Michigan earned him the nickname 'The Merchant Prince' He was a popular and familiar face in Detroit and locals tried to stand that the area he had chosen for his stores was haunted but as not deterred and did good business.
Perhaps they were correct as Manley died aged just 49 the year before the Majestic was completed. The original plan for the 14 storey building was the first 8 floors would be for the department store and the remaining 6 would be offices. Alas it was not to be as the owners used it only for offices. However his legacy lived in the name as Majestic was the chosen moniker for the skyscraper due to the amount of M's already carved into the stonework.
Perhaps the most popular part was the observation deck on the roof from where you could enjoy views for 12 miles, something quite novel and exciting at the time. In a link.to a previous subject on here The offices were The campaign centre for the 1900 presidential elections where McKinley was a candidate.
The building survived a fire in 1915 and made the news again the following year when Harry H. Gardiner aka 'The Human Fly' climbed the outside of the building to huge crowds waiting silently below. I don't know when the below card is from but I think I it is a good depiction of the building.
Ultimately as tastes changed the building fell out of favour and money was spend on new constructions rather than maintaining older buildings. In 1951 some masonry fell from the 6th floor and only narrowly missed hitting someone.
10 years later the building was closed and eventually demolished a year later.
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