Designed by Adler and Sullivan, the structure replaced 1830s era wood-framed tenement houses. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, but a fire damaged several floors of the building in 1974. A broad-based community effort in the early 1980s raised approximately $8 million to restore the building to its original state.

The building's original developer, local businessman Hascal Taylor, arranged the design and funding for the project prior to his death in 1894, and the Guaranty Company completed the structure in 1896 at a cost of $550,000. A few years later, the Prudential Insurance Co. purchased the edifice and renamed it The Prudential Building.

Sullivan, an early mentor of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, combined a powerful mix of beautiful and functional attributes in the design. The steel frame structure is clad with fireproof, hollow terra cotta tiles that were designed and cast off-site. It stands like a single modern column crowned with a symmetrical cornice. The reddish-orange facade complements the sandstone of the nearby St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral and is covered with vegetation motifs as well as geometric, arrow-like designs. The lobby contains marble mosaics and delicate ironwork on the staircase. An interior shaft that extended to the roof formerly illuminating the glass skylight in the lobby is now sealed.

The building's 13-floor plan was designed to accommodate a variety of tenants. As a result, each interior office is no more than 20 feet from a window.

Turn left onto Church Street and continue one block. Turn left onto Franklin Street. Head one block South.