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AT&T Michigan Headquarters

headquarters of American company AT&T in Detroit, USA

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ4654541
Source-derived summary

The AT&T Michigan Headquarters is a building complex located at 1st Street, Cass Avenue, State Street, and Michigan Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It contains the AT&T Building, the AT&T Building addition, the Maintenance Shop and is owned by communications giant AT&T.

Architecture

The AT&T Building (formerly known as the SBC Building, the Ameritech Building and the Michigan Bell Building) was completed for the Michigan Bell Telephone Company in 1919 and expanded in 1928. It is located at 1365 Cass Avenue, and occupies the block bordered by First Street, Cass Avenue, State Street, and Michigan Avenue. The AT&T Building stands 19 stories tall. The original 7-story structure completed in 1919 was designed to accommodate additional floors as needed. Construction of the 12-story addition began in June 1927, and was completed in September 1928. Several horizontal bands of limestone mark the top of the original structure.

The high-rise building is used as the Michigan headquarters for communications giant AT&T. It is designed in the Art Deco and Art moderne architectural styles, using tan brick and limestone for the façade. Windows are grouped in twos divided by brick piers and have bronze spandrel panels below depicting lightning bolts, bells and other symbols related to communication. Windows on floors 17 through 19 are recessed and framed by large arches.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “AT&T Michigan Headquarters” as headquarters of American company AT&T in Detroit, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Michigan, Headquarters and headquarters.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1919, 1928, 1365, 1927—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Michigan, Headquarters and headquarters providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “AT&T Michigan Headquarters”, the useful work is to connect “headquarters of American company AT&T in Detroit, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4654541. Authority coordinates are 42.333, -83.054. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1928, 1365 and 1927.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “AT&T Michigan Headquarters”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow AT&T Michigan Headquarters primary sources, AT&T Michigan Headquarters archive and Michigan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “AT&T Michigan Headquarters”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from AT&T Michigan Headquarters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.