Old Main (Wayne State University)
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Old Main
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| Location | 4841 Cass Avenue Detroit, Michigan |
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| Coordinates | 42°21′18.61″N 83°4′0.50″W / 42.3551694°N 83.0668056°WCoordinates: 42°21′18.61″N 83°4′0.50″W / 42.3551694°N 83.0668056°W |
| Built | 1895 |
| Architect | Malcomson & Higginbotham; Field, Hinchman & Smith |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne |
| Part of | Wayne State University Buildings (#78001524) |
| Added to NRHP | June 23, 1978 |
Old Main is an academic building on the campus of Wayne State University. It is located at 4841 Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, on Wayne's main campus.
Old Main is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Cass and Warren Ave. in the busy Midtown area of Detroit. Old Main is situated at the southern end of the main campus of Wayne State University, across Warren from the Science Building and just north of the college's Hilberry Theater. It stands approximately 1.5 miles north of downtown Detroit, one block west of the city's main street, Woodward Avenue, and within less than a mile of three of Detroit's major freeways, the Chrysler (I-75), the Lodge (M-10), and the Ford (I-94).
The building now known as Old Main was originally built as Detroit's Central High School. Construction of the building began on December 13, 1894. It was built over a three-year period out of brick and limestone quarried from the land directly in front of it. The structure was designed by architects Malcomson & Higginbotham and contained 103 classrooms, laboratories, offices, and space for 2,000 students. The building cost $573,345.13, most of which was paid for by state appropriations and an emergency building fund campaign.
Central High School moved to this new location from its previous home in the former Michigan State Capitol building in downtown Detroit's Capitol Park, which had burned down in 1893. Central High began classes here in 1896 as the building neared completion. As the number of students grew, a large wing was added to the rear of the building in 1908. In 1913 the high school began offering some college-level courses, and in 1917 the new two-year Detroit Junior College began to operate in the building. In 1923 this would become the four-year degree granting College of the City of Detroit, one of the main precursor institutions of today's Wayne State University.
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