Home Savings Bank opened for business Jan. 2, 1889, in the McGraw Building. Though it was far from Detroit's biggest savings institution, it was the first in the city to establish a branch bank, at what was then-781 Michigan Ave. (present-day 2575 Michigan).
With Detroit starting to boom, the bank thrived, and on May 30, 1894, the bank moved into its new, eight-story headquarters on the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street. It opened to the public the following day.
The bank, designed by Mortimer L. Smith & Son, stretched 36 feet along Michigan Avenue and 72 feet on Griswold, and "was then the most modern of structures at Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street," the Free Press recalled April 19, 1914.
"If it were the design of the bank officials to eclipse all other similar institutions in the elegance of its appointments, they have certainly been successful," the Detroit Free Press wrote May 31, 1894. "The interior is rendered veritably as light as day. The finishing, furnishings and decorations of the apartments are the finest that artistic taste and skill could produce," indeed, the paper noted, "the finest in the West."
The banking counters on the ground floor extended around the lobby in the form of a horseshoe and were of mahogany set in ornate steel work. The banking lobby's floor was in mosaic tile, and the walls and ceiling were decorated in white and gold. Nine large columns surrounded the room. The wainscoting was green marble. "The desks or cages of the different clerks are connected electrically, and each with the cashier, in order that suspicious callers may be sized up and no offense given," the paper noted.
There were four vaults, three for books and records and the fourth for cash and valuables. To the left of the main entrance on Griswold and Michigan was a "ladies' room for the special accommodation of lady patrons," the Free Press wrote.
The bank occupied the ground floor, and upper stories were rented to other firms. Among the other notable tenants were Clarence M. Burton’s Burton Abstract & Title Co., which moved into the building on May 1, 1894. Burton is considered the granddaddy of Detroit historians, and his collection was turned into the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library.
On April 25, 1913, stockholders of Home Savings Bank and the Wayne County Savings Bank approved a merger. At that time, it was announced that a new, larger building would be built on the site of the old Home Savings.
There was a hiccup, however: the Continental Real Estate Trust Co. - the only tenant still in the Home Bank Building in January 1914 - refused to move out, citing a lease that was to run through May 15, 1915.
Even when elevator and janitorial services were discontinued in the building, Continental stayed put on the fourth floor. Some newspaper reports said Continental was demanding $900 - the equivalent of about $30,000 in 2026 valuation, when adjusted for inflation - in order to leave. Continental refuted that claim. It's unclear how the issue was resolved, but Continental relocated to the Dime Building by that March.
In April 1914, workers began tearing out interior work on the upper floors of the Home Savings Bank Building. The bank planned to move April 18, 1914, to temporary quarters on the ground floor of the Hammond Building until the new bank opened.
On April 18, 1914, the doors to the bank closed for the final time. There were no public ceremonies when the bank closed at 8 p.m. that night.
"When you have spent 20 of the best years of your life in one building, it is hard to move," Julius H. Haas, president of the Wayne County & Home Savings Bank, told the Detroit Free Press for a story the next morning.
"The work of razing the Wayne County & Home Savings Bank building was commenced immediately after the bank moved to its temporary quarters in the Hammond Building," the Free Press wrote April 20, 1914. "The sidewalk has been barricaded, and the destruction of the block will be rushed to its conclusion."
Demolition was expected to be completed in just 30 days.
Its new Donaldson & Meier-designed home opened Dec. 20, 1915. The seven-story building was said to cost $1 million, or about $33 million in 2026 valuation.