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.
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