The Mercier Building was commissioned by John A. Mercier. Building permit (No. 38109) was pulled on Nov. 19, 1927, for what was originally planned to be a 13-story structure.

However, when it opened on Sept. 19, 1928, it stood as a two-story building. The foundation was engineered with support columns to bear the weight of a taller structure, allowing for potential future expansion if desired. That never came.

Mercier was a well-known figure in Detroit, and owner of the J.A. Mercier Construction Co., the John A. Mercier Land Co. and the John A. Mercier Brick Co., which was located at 3895 Roulo Ave., near Woodmere Cemetery in Southwest Detroit. Mercier bricks were stamped "J.A.M.," and can be found in a number of Detroit buildings, including the Grande Ballroom.

He also was vice president of the Wolverine Stone Co., Detroit Asphalt Paving Co., and Howie Roofing Co., as well as a director of the U.S. Mortgage Bond Co., Fordson Wayne County Bank, People's Wayne County Bank and Highland Park Wayne County Bank. His firms handled a number of infrastructure projects, such as the Black River Tunnel in Port Huron; tunnels for the Detroit Water Board and Detroit Edison; sewers along Jos. Campau, Vinewood and Third Street; paving miles of Gratiot and Van Dyke; and the railway foundation for the Detroit Department of Street Railways. He also owned several large farms in Oakland County.

John Anthony Mercier was born May 2, 1862, in Wayne County, Mich. He married Matilda Huson in 1886. In 1889, he went into business for himself, grading and laying sod for builders. Three years later, he branched out and got into excavating and building lateral sewers. He would continue to add more and more construction-related fields to his portfolio. He set up shop in the Hammond Building, where he remained for more than three decades until constructing the Mercier Building.

He died Oct. 2, 1944, at age 82 at Harper Hospital. He is interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Detroit.

For decades, the westernmost ground-floor retail space has been home to the Anchor Bar, which relocated to the building in December 1993 from the other-wise boarded-up Fort Shelby Hotel. The Anchor Bar, for decades, was known as a newspaper bar, where reporters would go to chain-smoke and soothe deadline nerves.

More on this building coming soon.