Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, Detroit, Michigan
Incorporated as Smith, Hinchman & Grylls 1907
Continues today as the SmithGroup
The firm traces its ancestry back to the mid-1850s when Mortimer Smith arrived in Detroit. It was incorporated as Field, Hinchman & Smith in 1903 and in 1907 became Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. Prior to incorporating, the partners had productive careers. By the 1920s, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls were executing designs for large-scale commercial buildings, factories and residential work. The firm continues today as the Smith group.1
In Saginaw, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls’ two most visible contributions are the Second National Bank and AT & T Buildings. Both were designed by Wirt Rowland, chief designer at the firm at that time. By the 1930s when the firm was involved with the Saginaw Post Office project, Rowland was no longer with Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. As a result of the Depression, the firm was drastically reduced in size and he lost his job.2
Representative Work:
Saginaw:
United States Post Office, Design executed in association with Saginaw architect Carl Macomber
Second National Bank Building
AT&T Building [constructed as Michigan Bell Telephone Building]
Detroit:
Guardian Building [constructed as Union Trust Building]3
Sources:
1Thomas J. Holleman and James P. Gallagher. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls: 125 Years of Architecture and Engineering, 1953-1978. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 1978.
2Rebecca Binno Savage and Sharon Scott, comp. and ed. Exhibition Catalog: Wirt C. Rowland Exhibition. Clinton, Michigan: Wirt C. Rowland Exhibition Committee, 2004.
3Holleman and Gallagher.
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