The story of the Bradbury building is as dramatic as the building itself. Inspired by an 1880's science fiction story, designed with an assist from the occult by a draftsman with no architectural or engineering training and built by a mining millionaire as his monument to himself, a unque entity that would ensure the perpetuation of his name.

The Bradbury Building was built in 1893. Lewis Bradbury commissioned an architectural draftsman George Wyman to design the building. He turned the building inward upon itself. The Italian Renaissance exterior facade is of brown brick and sandstone terra cotta. It is the beauty of the dazzling center court of the interior that gave the building its fame.