The main brick building was built in 1925 for the Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC)—a simple concrete structure with offices above a garage. Three years later, the commission added a one-story workshop, and in 1930 the addition of a brick garage. The accessory sheds are associated with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) launched during the Great Depression. WCRC employees worked on the second floor of the main building doing surveying, engineering, bookkeeping, purchasing, and personnel. In 1965 WCRC moved out and The City of Ann Arbor took over 415. The offices were used for parks and recreation, forestry, parking, traffic engineering, and Fairview Cemetery, along with the sign shop and eventually expanded to include neighborhood parking regulations and "clean community" violations in the building.
More than 40 years later in 2007 the City mostly moved out of 415 and discussions began about what would become of the City-owned site. Since the site sits in the Allen Creek Floodplain, in 2006 Mayor Hieftje appointed The Allen Creek Greenway Task Force to gather input from the community and discuss options for the 415 site and the two other publicly-owned sites in the Allen Creek Floodplain. The Task Force issued a report in March 2007, which summarized the context of each site and presented three options for each. Options for 415 included (1) removal of existing buildings and conversion of the entire site into green open space with an art park and an open performance plaza built on pervious surface materials; (2) adaptive reuse of the historic brick buildings to serve community needs, such as arts and performance space; and (3) removing the existing structures and building housing in the flood fringe section and keeping the floodway section as green open space. Many plans were put forth over the next decade which proposed creative adaptive reuse of the historic buildings, including by Kiwanis and the Arts Alliance.
More than 40 years later in 2007 the City mostly moved out of 415 and discussions began about what would become of the City-owned site. Since the site sits in the Allen Creek Floodplain, in 2006 Mayor Hieftje appointed The Allen Creek Greenway Task Force to gather input from the community and discuss options for the 415 site and the two other publicly-owned sites in the Allen Creek Floodplain. The Task Force issued a report in March 2007, which summarized the context of each site and presented three options for each. Options for 415 included (1) removal of existing buildings and conversion of the entire site into green open space with an art park and an open performance plaza built on pervious surface materials; (2) adaptive reuse of the historic brick buildings to serve community needs, such as arts and performance space; and (3) removing the existing structures and building housing in the flood fringe section and keeping the floodway section as green open space. Many plans were put forth over the next decade which proposed creative adaptive reuse of the historic buildings, including by Kiwanis and the Arts Alliance.