Certainly was a colorful town. Note how the artist drew yellow strips up the side. From what I’ve read, it was made of green granite and red sandstone, but it probably darkened soon enough from soot, and later, exhaust.

It was originally named the Northwest Guaranty Loan building, the HQ for the company founded by local magnate Louis Menage. A few years after its 1890 completion, the Panic of ’93 took down Menage. Thomas Lowry, streetcar builder (and the namesake of the Lowry Hill area) had it for a while, but he sold it to Met Life in 1905. It was known as the Metropolitan ever since, probably because the name was engraved over the door, and no one wanted to spend the coin to take it off.