Building Location

[Honky Tonk]

Maybe he had a roach clip...

Take a GOOD look. That's a one-hitter if I ever saw one!

[Brock7]

This bugged me. I looked at the fur business listings in the 1928 directory, and searched "Furs" in the Burton collection and at the Virtual Motor City. I stared at the photo some more and decided the letters preceding "Furs" looked to me like "eron" or "eton" and thought that Sheeton-Wartikoff might have operated under a name shortened for whatever reason like Newton-Annis seems to have, and found that was the case.

According to ads in several 1948 issues of the Grosse Pointe Review the address for Sheeton Furs was then 402 Michigan Theatre Bldg, but that's a few years after the war.
http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/digitiz...1948-01-15.pdf
http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/digitiz...1948-02-26.pdf
http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/digitiz...1948-03-18.pdf

The 1928 address was 1453 Farmer. Looking at renumbering info I see that would be between Grand River and John R. Hornwrecker's 1930 map shows the Scherer Bldg on the NE corner of Farmer and Grand River. Burton has a photo that confirms it's the same building as in the OP photo, though the 1st floor facade originally matched that of the upper floors. Incidentally, the 1930 map shows Annis Furs across Grand River on the SE corner of the intersection.

"c.1915 Corner of Farmer St. and Grand River Ave. Workers standing with three commercial trucks, each one advertising "Schneider's, 21 East Grand River." Commercial buildings in background, including stores in Scherer Building directly behind cars."
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dpa1ic/x...12/dpa4212.tif

[EastsideAl]

Great work Brock!

The building shown is definitely the Scherer Building, which means the policeman is standing in front of the northeast corner of Hudsons at Farmer and E. Grand River.

Although the store in the background certainly seems to be a fur store, the identity of that store is not as clear to me. The 1936 city directory also shows Sheeton & Wartikoff Furs as being located at 1453 Farmer, but that address was the Hannan-Mills Buidling, which was at the southwest corner of Farmer and John R - across the street and a block up from the location shown in the cop photo. The 1936 directory shows Peter's Dyers and Cleaners as being in the corner storefront of the Scherer Building [[1400 Farmer) and Baer Bros. Furs in the adjoining storefront [[1410 Farmer).

From the policeman photo it appears that several of the building's storefronts had been combined into a single corner store by 1940. Photos and listings from the early '50s seem to show that space as being occupied by Theisen's Luggage store. And it is clear that by then Sheeton Furs was on the fourth floor of the Michigan Theater Building [[photos of the Michigan from the time also confirm this). Of course, it is quite possible that some time between 1936 and 1948 Sheeton tried a large street-level retail store in the corner space shown in the photo.

It is certainly clear that by the time of the 1959 photograph below the Scherer Building had been torn down and replaced by a parking lot, which means that the photo posted at the top of this thread has to have been taken before that year:

[gnome]

Hold on ... You are saying the scheer building was located where the backside of the Boll YMCA is now located, right? That slice of Grand River is rather short before it hits Broadway, and in the OP photo we see the right side of the building is rather long. There are almost a dozen windows running that whole length, plus another building directly behind it.

hence, despite all the hard detective work, I am not sure I can agree.

[p69rrh51]

Hold on ... You are saying the scheer building was located where the backside of the Boll YMCA is now located, right? That slice of Grand River is rather short before it hits Broadway, and in the OP photo we see the right side of the building is rather long. There are almost a dozen windows running that whole length, plus another building directly behind it.

hence, despite all the hard detective work, I am not such I can agree.

gnome I have a reference to the Scherer building on Grand River from an architectural journal I think brock7 nailed it.

[Kathleen]

Brock7!!!! Thank you for taking the ball and running with it!!! I wasn't able to take the FURS sign that I could see...and connect it with anything ending with "on" or "in". You did a great job of pulling this all together! Thanks, EastsideAl and p69rrh51, for the added research.

[gnome]

gnome I have a reference to the Scherer building on Grand River from an architectural journal I think brock7 nailed it.

Not doubt Brock7 kicked tail with that research. Very impressive stuff, my point is not about the Scherer Building being located at the north east corner of Farmer and Grand River; but rather, that the pic with the cop isn't the Scherer.

[gnome]

Indisputable proof that I was completely wrong. Brock7 was totally correct. EastsideAl was correct. Kathleen was right ... as usual.

and I was wrong. Despicably dumb to be doubtful.

http://detroiths.pastperfect-online....2013040980.JPG

this is a pic was taken looking up Farmer. On the right you can see the Scherer Building with the cladding on the first floor. Length of the ladies skirts hints that the photo was taken in the mid 1950s.

[MikeM]

Sorry I missed this thread, I could have saved you some time and effort. From 1943:

[EastsideAl]

Thanks MikeM. That seems to clear up the last part of the mystery! Sheldon, huh?

[Brock7]

So it's Sheldon Furs! Never would've guessed - I'm still seeing "eron" or "eton" when I look at the photo in the initial post. Funny that if I'd looked at the listings by street address in the 1928 directory I would've seen that Sheeton Furs at 1453 was at the other end of the block, as Al pointed out, and not bothered to look for a photo of the Scherer Bldg. So I sure wasn't totally correct, it was more of a fluke.

Nice find on the shot down Farmer gnome. I think only the Metropolitan Bldg. at the foot of Farmer is still standing.

[old guy]

Yeah, good work. I was still having a hard time with the sign. Now I'm a believer.

[MikeM]

So it's Sheldon Furs!

Despite what the map shows, their address at the time was listed either as 101 E Grand River or "Grand River at Farmer".

[ismoakrack]

Nice find on the shot down Farmer gnome. I think only the Metropolitan Bldg. at the foot of Farmer is still standing.

The building in the front lower left of the pic with "Fabrics" on it is also still there, although it's a piece of dung.

[Honky Tonk]

So it's Sheldon Furs! Never would've guessed - I'm still seeing "eron" or "eton" when I look at the photo in the initial post. Funny that if I'd looked at the listings by street address in the 1928 directory I would've seen that Sheeton Furs at 1453 was at the other end of the block, as Al pointed out, and not bothered to look for a photo of the Scherer Bldg. So I sure wasn't totally correct, it was more of a fluke.

Nice find on the shot down Farmer gnome. I think only the Metropolitan Bldg. at the foot of Farmer is still standing.

Look closley over the cops left shoulder, where the traffic light pole is, on top of the marquee. The big letters say "FUR" and part of the "S" is obscured by his helmet. The visible smaller letters, left of the big ones, say "something" "O, N".

[downtownguy]

The building in the front lower left of the pic with "Fabrics" on it is also still there, although it's a piece of dung.

What's so bad about that building? At least it's been occupied for most of the last 2 decades by the Biegas Gallery and PuppetArt Theater.

[gnome]

http://detroiths.pastperfect-online....2009019098.JPG

here is a very interesting aerial shot of the area. At the bottom you can see the Scherer, but the Eaton Tower/ Broderick has not been built yet. The Palms/State/Fillmore is being built and the Fox is just a dream. The Metropolitan Building is fresh and clean, so I'd put a date of around 1924-25 on the photo.

it is a bit strange to see homes where the Fox is now standing.

[CassTechGrad]

MikeM
Is the map you show that has the names of the stores on it available on-line? Where can I get a copy?

[ismoakrack]

What's so bad about that building? At least it's been occupied for most of the last 2 decades by the Biegas Gallery and PuppetArt Theater.

Just not a fan of featureless concrete slabs, I guess.

[mauser]

Before 1961, because the guy with the suit and catalog case is wearing a hat. JFK ended men's hat wearing and killed the hatters industry [[and union) by going hatless at his inauguration.

JFK wore a top hat at the inauguration.

http://easyandelegantlife.com/wp-con...is-bettman.jpg

[downtownguy]

The building in the front lower left of the pic with "Fabrics" on it is also still there, although it's a piece of dung.

What's so bad about that building? At least it's been occupied for most of the last 2 decades by the Biegas Gallery and PuppetArt Theater.

Just not a fan of featureless concrete slabs, I guess.

Apparently, the owner of Cliff Bell's and The Bronx Bar didn't think the building is a piece of dung. From Curbed Detroit:

New Bar/Restaurant in the works.

[highjinx2]

WOW! What a great ride this was.
I would to thank every single person for their input.
And Special thanks to Brock7, EastsideAl, Kathleen, and p69rrh51.