The building is the last of three purchased on Cadillac as part of Pewabic's plan for expanding its Jefferson campus, says executive director Terese Ireland. Pewabic is using the building for staff offices. Its board plans later this year to commission a study todetermine if the building should be renovated or demolished, Ireland says. The two other Cadillac buildings were demolished to make room for a parking lot.

Pewabic Pottery was founded in 1903 by Mary Chase Perry (later Mary Chase Perry Stratton) and her partner, Horace Caulkins, at the height of the Arts & Crafts movement in America. The Pottery's first home was a stable on Alfred Street in Detroit. Four years later, Pewabic Pottery moved to a new facility on East Jefferson designed by architect William Buck Stratton in the Tudor Revival style. In 1991, the building (which still houses the Pottery) and its contents were designated a National Historic Landmark and today is Michigan's only historic pottery.