Stofflet Block, 1900

501-507 Detroit Street

Stofflet Block, 1900

This handsome corner structure with its symmetrical end towers and projecting porches is Ann Arbor's first apartment building. Built by news and book dealer Francis Stofflet for his children, the building originally contained four two-story apartments. Francis proudly inserted the name "Stofflet" at the center of the Detroit Street facade. Two of his children, Harvey and Elmer Stofflet, lived in the end apartments until the mid-1920s, when Mary Stofflet, Francis' widow, moved into the first unit and divided the four original apartments into eight one-story flats. In 1934 the mortgage was foreclosed and the building began to fall into disrepair. Taylor Collins, who walked by daily, admired the unique structure and vowed to purchase it someday "with hardly a quarter in my pocket to call my own." He realized his dream in 1938 and lived there with his wife until 1973.

Stofflet was a businessman, who had moved here to attend the University. He obtained a law degree in 1871 and taught in Rochester, Michigan, until 1877. When he returned to Ann Arbor in 1878 he published a news sheet, the Ann Arbor Daily Times, which never amounted to much. In 1881 he began a business which distributed newspapers and magazines, including monthlies from London and Paris. His son Harvey and grandson Ross carried on the business as the Stofflet News Service until 1970.

When Taylor Collins sold the building in 1973, it was renovated and renamed the Olde Town Apartments. By the mid-1980's, the building was divided into the Brownstone Condominiums, eight two-story units created by accessing the previously unused space in the basements and attics.