James Burgess Book, Sr. was an eminent doctor, educator, and real estate magnate whose sons built the illustrious Book Building and Book Tower in downtown Detroit.
Book was born outside Toronto, Ontario on November 7, 1843 to Dutch descendants Jonathan Book and Hannah Smith. He studied at Victoria University in Toronto, left there in 1865 to get a degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, then returned to Victoria University to complete medical courses.
After beginning private practice in Windsor, Ontario, he soon moved to Detroit. In 1867 Book left for Europe to study at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London and the École de Médecin in Paris, also training at the Vienna, Austria general hospital. He returned to Detroit in 1869.
Along with his private practice, Book was a professor of surgery and clinical surgery at Michigan Medical College, which later became the Detroit College of Medicine. In addition, he worked at St. Luke’s and Harper hospitals, was surgeon-in-chief for the D.L. & N. railroad, and surgeon for the Independent Battalion of Detroit in 1881. Noted for his skill as a surgeon, he was the first in the west to successfully remove a Meckels ganglion in 1882.
In 1889 Book married Clothilde Palms, daughter of Francis Palms, at one time the largest land owner in Michigan. They had three children, J. Burgess, Jr., Francis and Herbert. After the death of his father-in-law in 1886, an estate of seven million dollars was eventually settled between Clothilde and her brother, leading Book to turn from medicine to real estate. In 1912 the Palms-Book Land Co. filed legal papers in Wayne County with Book, his wife and oldest son James, Jr. as three of the five trustees.
The Palms real estate holdings included property at Washington Boulevard and Grand River Avenue, site of the Book building. Reportedly, the three Book brothers were born down the street in the Cadillac Hotel, which they later purchased. Book Sr. planned for the construction of the Book Building before his death on January 31,1916, and his sons saw it to completion, later adding the Book Tower, intended to be the tallest building in Detroit. He is buried at Roseland Park Cemetery in Berkley, Michigan.
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