Cadillac
Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company. After a dispute between Henry Ford and his investors, Ford left the company along with several of his key partners in March 1902. Ford's financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment in preparation for liquidating the company's assets. Instead, Leland persuaded the pair to continue manufacturing automobiles using Leland's proven single-cylinder engine. A new company called the Cadillac Automobile Company was established on 22 August 1902, re-purposing the Henry Ford Company factory at Cass Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It was named after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit in 1701.
Cass Motor Sales
The Cass Motor Sales Company was established in 1925 as a Chrysler car dealership by Richard A. Cott, an immigrant from England. In 1928, Cott paid approximately $146,000 to have this building constructed. Architect Charles N. Agree designed the building. From 1928 - 1933, Cass Motor Sales sold Marmon Motor Car Company vehicles. After 1933, when Marmon went out of business, Cass again sold Chryslers. Richard A. Cott died in 1965, and in 1969 Cass Motor Sales ceased operations. The building was sold to Dalgleish Cadillac, who operated it until the dealership closed in 2010.