Pratt Block restoration is a "Queen Anne front with a Mary Ann behind"

The Pratt Block building has shrugged off its damaged upper facade and now has a new front on Main Street.

Detroit Cornice & Slate recently completed a restoration of the cornice on the building at 301-306 S. Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor. The circa-1896 building formerly housed Kline's department store and now has nine residential lofts and other businesses.

The new cornice was fashioned from sheet metal and replaced 80 1-foot by 18-inch brackets removed when flat porcelain panels were installed on the facade. The cornice was then painted to give the appearance of being cast from stone, a common sight in towns with 1800s roots. In that era it was common to construct buildings with ornate facade fronts and unadorned common brick backsides.

"Mark Twain referred to that as a Queen Anne front with a Mary Ann behind!" says Doneen Hesse, owner of Detroit Cornice & Slate.

The 122-year-old business has also had a hand in many of the ornamental slate or copper roofs on the University of Michigan's academic buildings and dormitories. In 1995, the Lurie Engineering Building was topped with a copper roof – 30 tons' worth. And last year the company installed a full new slate roof and copper metalwork such as gutters, downspouts, and fascia, as part of the historical restoration of the Mosher Jordan dormitory. That project cost just over $1.5 million and used about 140,000 pieces of slate, Hesse says.

Hesse ticks off a list of other work, including the installation of ornamental purple and grape green slate on the First Congregational Church as well as slate roofing for Stockwell Hall, Lorch Hall, Hutchens Hall, and fraternities and private Ann Arbor residences.

Source: Doneen Hesse, owner of Detroit Cornice & Slate
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar