"The Savoyard River snaked through a willow swamp on the Guoin farm where Riopelle crosses Congress. At Woodward Avenue, a wide bridge spanned it. French settlers depended on the stream to turn the wheels of their mills. It was a favorite of anglers, but over the course of time, the settlers used the stream as a drain. After Fort Shelby was demolished, the bottom and sides of the stream were planked with the lumber from the fort. It became practically an open sewer, growing so offensive that residents along the shores were happy to have the city encase it in stone in 1836, and convert it into a great sewer.

A group of men who had made a habit of lunching together discussed the possibility of an eating club near the Buhl Building, where they worked. The Buhl Building had had been built over the now vanished stream. What began as a joke — a suggestion that the club be built at the top of the building which had displaced the stream — became reality in 1928. The architect, William E. Kapp, named it the Savoyard after the long gone creek. He aimed for the look of a French provicial inn.