With its massive cream brick exterior heavily articulated with elaborate Ionia sandstone window enframements and a magnificent florid metal-covered entablature, the Ledyard Block is one of the outstanding Italianate commercial blocks remaining in Michigan. Originally serving as stores, offices, and a hotel, the building was constructed for William B. Ledyard (1811–1890), banker and businessman, as one of several investments downtown. The Ledyard Block is part of the remarkable streetscape of splendid Round Arch mode and Italianate commercial buildings at 109–125 Ottawa Avenue NW and at 102–124 Monroe Center, built to replace the frame buildings destroyed by fire in September 1857. Twenty-five buildings along both sides of Monroe, between Market Street and Ottawa Avenue, were destroyed at that time. Today the Ledyard Block has been rehabilitated with a concourse and atrium that link it with commercial buildings to the south.