Just saw this thread yesterday [[a little late, I know), but the Murphy building is part of my family genealogy and part of Detroit's proud past. Simon Jones Murphy, lumber baron out of Maine, came to Detroit in 1860 after the lumber stands in Maine were depleted and set up an office with Messrs. Eddy and Avery to harvest the vast lumber resources of the lower peninsula. They purchased several hundred thousands acres of timberland over the next thirty years and set about to service the lumber needs of a growing nation.

Simon Jones lived out the remainder of his life in Detroit [[dying in 1905 at the age of 90) and was the consumate industrial-age businessman. During his lifetime he built many of early Detroit's most significant utility services: Murphy Icehouse, Murphy Power [[along with Edison supplying electricity and steam-heat to the downtown commercial district), Murphy Telegraph [[later Bell Telephone) and numerous others. He left a rich heritage which has largely been forgotten today, and many more achievements which continued on after his passing by his acccomplished children.

Also, he built the first 13 story Penobscot Building [[Penobscot Indians of the Penobscot River in Maine where he first started logging) which was completed a week after his death and finally completed by his son, Charles H. Murphy, in what we know today as the Penobcot block of buildings.