The Garfield Building derives its historical significance from its association with the development of Woodward Avenue and the expansion of the City of Detroit into the automotive capital of the nation. It represents the type of speculative retail/commercial development catering to the auto industry in early twentieth century Detroit, and is one of the few surviving buildings of its period and scale on Woodward Avenue between Grand Circus Park and Grand Boulevard that typify that era. Also contributing to its significance are its architect, Albert Kahn, architect for the automobile age, and its original owner, Edwin S. George, an auto enthusiast who played an important role in the development of Woodward Avenue, Detroit's major thoroughfare. Mr. George was also known for his philanthropic endeavors centered around aiding children and the Presbyterian Church; the Garfield Building is a reminder of his contributions to the City of Detroit.

After the fire of 1805, Judge Augustus B. Woodward arrived in Detroit as one of the first Judges of the Michigan Territory. He proceeded to forestall rebuilding until a plan could be drawn, upon which orderly development of the city would be based. This plan, referred to as the "Woodward Plan," was influenced by Pierre L'Enfant's plan for Washington D.C., Woodward's former home, drawn just fourteen years before. Woodward incorporated the diagonal streets of the Washington plan but in his plan for Detroit the diagonals radiated outward from a series of hexagons, creating broad vistas and unique public spaces. The major thoroughfare extending from the Detroit River northward was Woodward Avenue. Originating nearest to the Detroit River, a thriving commercial center developed. From the mid-nineteenth century into the early twentieth century, Woodward Avenue north of Grand Circus Park developed into a highly desirable residential thoroughfare. But the advent and growth of the automobile industry transformed the city virtually overnight. The City's population increased dramatically in the first quarter of the century, as the number of peopie dependent on the manufacture and sale of the automobile ballooned. Detroit's population rose from 285,740 in 1900 to 465,766 in 1910 to 993,729 in 1920. The mansions on Woodward Avenue were largely replaced by commercial development as their owners moved further away from downtown, freed to do so by their possession of the automobile.

At the time when Edwin S. George began accumulating land on Woodward Avenue, Garfield Avenue was considered to be far out of the city center. The Woodward street car line made downtown accessible, although Woodward north of High Street (Fisher Freeway) remained largely undeveloped for commercial uses. An article appearing in the Detroit Free Press in 1906 describes business activity above Grand Circus Park as just beginning to take hold.

The Edwin S. George Building was designed as a two-story building by Albert Kahn in 1908 (Kahn Job #370). The majority of its first tenants were involved in the automobile industry as parts suppliers and manufacturers. B.F. Goodrich & Company, rubber goods; C.F. Splitdorf, magnetos, electric specialities and spark plugs; Harry H. Bailey & Company, auto parts; Wheeler & Schebler, carburetors; RIV Company, ball bearings; Prest-O-Lite Company, gas tanks; and the Hartford Machine Screw Company were among the early tenants occupying the storefronts.

By 1914, Mr. George was known as the largest owner of Woodward Avenue frontage. His holdings on Woodward Avenue were more extensive than any other individual. He began acquiring choice parcels on Woodward before the development boon, which was largely due to the success of the automobile, specifically the model "T". He concentrated his real estate holdings between Grand Circus Park and the Boulevard. It was said that at one time, his ownership along this frontage was one-quarter mile.

The three upper stories of the Edwin S. George Building were added in 1914 (Kahn Job #391), and the building became known as the "Garfield Building" shortly thereafter. Still, it housed offices and retail outlets of many industrial suppliers in the late teens and early 1920's. Among the storefront occupants were Pennsylvania Rubber Company, manufacturers of vacuum cup tires; Kingstone Carburetor and Coil Company; E.T. Barnum Iron & Wire Works; and Standard Parts Company, auto parts. Offices above were occupied by manufacturers representatives, engineering labs, and automobile organization's offices, including the Lincoln Highway Association, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, and the National Association of Purchasing Agents. Individuals or firms providing professional services also occupied the building, including Work and Fretz, traffic managers, and Patrick H .. Carey, construction engineer. George's office and the office serving the building occupied space on the fifth floor.

Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record of 1920 reported that Woodward Avenue had overtaken Jefferson Avenue as the center of automobile sales in Detroit. As the automobile passed through its experimental phase and became a commercial reality with the help of mass production, Woodward Avenue between Grand Circus Park and Grand Boulevard became Detroit's "Automobile Row." It was on Woodward, already Detroit's busiest thoroughfare, that most of the big sales establishments founded headquarters. North of Grand Circus Park to Grand Boulevard and beyond, Woodward was dotted with all kinds of automotive-related establishments, including show rooms, sales and office buildings, suppliers, and auto, truck, tire and accessary firms.

In the late 1920's and early 1930's, vacancies occurred in the Garfield Building as the Depression set in. Although several manufacturer's agents and tool and parts businesses were listed as occupants in the city directories, other types of businesses began to occupy space. Notable ones were the Michigan Children's Aid Society, a special project of Edwin George; the Central District Protective Association, the Woodward Avenue Improvement Association, a furniture store, household goods store, Western Union Telephone Office, commercial photographers, general contractors and the office of the City of Detroit's Rapid Transit Commission. Many storefronts went vacant by the early 1930's. Edwin George sold the property in 1942 to a property investment company. The Garfield Building became home to Wayne County Community College in the 1970's; it had been largely vacant since that institution moved to its downtown location in the late 1970's until 1999, when it was converted into retail space on the first floor and 56 residential loft units on floors two through five.

Albert Kahn was established as Detroit's leading industrial architect by the time he was commissioned to design the Edwin S. George Building in 1908. He had used the reinforced concrete frame successfully in Packard Plant #10 on East Grand Boulevard in 1905 for Henry B. Joy's Packard Motor Car Company, and that became the standard for industrial design. Perhaps George's association with Kahn stemmed from the Packard plant, for George was the proprietor of Standard Automobile Company, distributor for Packard Motor Car Company. The first office building of concrete construction in Detroit was Kahn's Trussed Concrete Building, built in 1907 on the corner of Lafayette and Wayne (demolished 1957). The Trussed Concrete Steel Company, (owned by Julius Kahn, Albert's brother) and Albert Kahn's architectural offices were housed in that building for many years.

Other reinforced concrete-framed commercial buildings on Woodward Avenue designed by Kahn around the same time as the Edwin S. George Building were the Grinnell Building (1908) and the Woodward Building (1915), both south of Grand Circus Park, and the Ford Motor Company Sales Office (1913) on the corner of East Grand Boulevard and Woodward Avenue. The frames of all four were covered in terra cotta with pleasing Renaissance detailing. Another notable automobile-related building, the B.F. Goodrich Building on Woodward at Hancock, was designed by Kahn in approximately 1919. Its frame is faced with brick and decorative tile.

Edwin S. George was born in Slatington, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1873. He ventured to Detroit as a young man in 1890 and was employed by Annis and Miller, furriers. He continued in the business with the junior partner, William H. Miller, until 1897, when he began his own business. Soon after, he bought out the business of Walter Buhl & Company and merged it with his own, resulting in his becoming a wholesale and retail dealer, importer and exporter of furs. He remained as such until 1910, when he left the fur business altogether. George was also the proprietor of Standard Automobile Company, distributors of Packard automobiles, with offices and a garage on Woodward Avenue, from about 1906, and held large real estate interests by 1908. In fact, in 1914 he gave up his automobile holdings so that he could devote his full attention to real estate.

Mr. George married Bessie Scotten, the daughter of Oren Scotten, in 1899. Oren Scotten was the brother of Daniel Scotten, wealthy manufacturer of tobacco products. The Georges made their residence at 221 Vinewood in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood just south of the Daniel Scotten estate (replaced by Fisher Freeway). Later, the Georges kept a residence in Detroit and one in Bloomfield Hills named "Erdenheim", a house designed for them by Albert Kahn in 1908. Kahn also designed the stables, a cottage, and a cow barn on the property. Mr. George's major recreational pursuits were "motoring" and farming. However, his business and recreation were interrupted by World War I; he enlisted in the Officers' Reserve Corps in December, 1916 and received the commission as captain in that organization in 1917, assisting in the organization of base hospitals. In October of that year he was ordered to Washington to do a job that seemed to be right up his alley - he purchased motor trucks and automobile equipment for the Signal Corps. In 1918, George was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Signal Corps, and was made full colonel in July, 1918. He became chief of the motor branch, Motors and Vehicles Division, before being discharged in 1919.

Mr. George continued with his real estate interests after the war, becoming the expert on Woodward Avenue values. He became active in civic affairs, as a director of the Board of Commerce, and was an advocate of the "good roads movement." He also helped found the Automobile Club of Detroit and the Bloomfield Hills Country Club. In 1923, the Detroit architectural firm of George D. Mason built a large English Neo-Tudor style home for the Georges, named "Cedarholm," in Bloomfield Hills.

In his later years, George concerned himself with the foundation he set up in 1935, the Edwin S. George Foundation, which was located on the fifth floor of the Garfield Building. George conveyed a large tract of land adjacent to his home in Bloomfield Township and a commercial building in downtown Detroit to five trustees for religious, charitable and educational purposes. The Bloomfield Hills land was designated as the site for a Presbyterian Church, although the foundation did not yet have the money to build. In his later years, Mr. George worked very closely with Wirt C. Rowland, then a former architect with Smith Hinchman Grylls, on sketches for the church. When Rowland died in 1946, the firm of George D. Mason was commissioned to undertake the design. However, George died on January 25, 1951, shortly before construction began on Kirk-in-the Hills.

Mr. George traveled extensively to such exotic places as Africa and Asia. He joined a big game hunt in 1925 and brought back a pair of elephant tusks which he removed from an elephant he had shot. Hunting and fishing were amongst his favorite pastimes. In fact, his love of wildlife resulted in one of the Foundation's major gifts in 1930 and 1944 - 1300 acres of land near Pinckney in Livingston County named the Edwin S. George Reserve of the University or Michigan, to be administered by the University's Museum of Zoology. The preserve was to be a laboratory for the study of wildlife.

George left most of his wealth to the foundation. The total value of gifts made by the foundation at the time of George's death was over $3 million, including "Cedarholm," George's estate that was conveyed to the Foundation in 1946 and 1947 and valued then at $550,000. "Cedarholm" was then transferred to the Detroit Presbytery for church purposes; it became the church house to the church building known as "Kirk-in-the-Hills". Mr. George's body now rests in a crypt beneath the floor of the narthex of Kirk-in-the-Hills. At the time of his death, he was on the Board of Library Commissioners and the Board of Trustees of the Cranbrook Institute of Science. He was also president of the Children's Aid Society from 1926 until he died.