Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 7:41 pm:

---

quote:

he 1905 passenger depot and restaurant complex at Allandale was designed by the architectural firm of Spier and Rohns. Frederick Spier (1855-1931), the senior architect in the company, established a working partnership with William C. Rohns (1856-1951) in 1884.30 Railway stations were one of the major types of building designed by the Detroit-based company.31 Its corporate clients included both Michigan Central and the Grand Trunk Railway, as well as many smaller lines operating in Michigan. Depots designed by the firm were located in the American cities of Ann Arbor, Niles, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, and Chicago. In Canada, the firm of Spier and Rohns is also credited with the construction of the 1905 Brantford CNR station. A picturesque depot erected in the same year, it has a grander scale than Allandale. It is notable for its four storey, flat-topped square tower and its rounded bay with a conical roof—both with exterior walls of red brick laid in flemish bond (Figure 26).32

Spier and Rohns did not restrict its work to railway stations. Some of the more notable non-railway commissions completed by Spier and Rohns include Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit (1893), St. Thomas Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, Tappan Hall and the west medical building at the University of Michigan, and the Detroit Chamber of Commerce (the city's first skyscraper). This successful partnership ended in 1912.

---