George D. Mason of Detroit designed this brick and limestone building in 1905 as a showplace for the products of Cobbs and Mitchell, Inc., a nationally known lumber company. Completed in 1907, its interior is finished in nine varieties of native Michigan wood: elm, white maple, bird’s-eye maple, sap birch, red birch, curly red birch, red beech, red oak, and hemlock. The company was named for Jonathan W. Cobbs and William W. Mitchell, whose families were prime movers in the growth of the city of Cadillac and developed much of northern Michigan’s lumber industry. The building also housed the Mitchell Bros. Company and other lumbering interests before it was purchased by the State Highway Department in 1939.