Film of FTD's 50th Anniversary Convention -Cobo Hall 1960

**Pam** · March-04-17, 08:46 AM

I read about this in the latest Detroit Historical Society Newsletter.

https://youtu.be/dGs1u0AP3h8

Color 16mm reel containing a documentary about FTD's 50th anniversary convention in Detroit between August 14th and 18th, 1960--the first major event at the newly completed Cobo Hall.

**Jason** · March-04-17, 02:08 PM

Neat video.

Does anyone know where their new HQ shown at the end of the video was built? It was under construction in 1960. I googled and found some advertisements that I *think* say East or West Grand Boulevard, but I can't find the building in google maps. I'm guessing maybe it was in the area demolished for the poletown plant?

**Pam** · March-04-17, 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by Jason

Neat video.

Does anyone know where their new HQ shown at the end of the video was built? It was under construction in 1960. I googled and found some advertisements that I *think* say East or West Grand Boulevard, but I can't find the building in google maps. I'm guessing maybe it was in the area demolished for the poletown plant?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floris...world_Delivery

This Wiki article says they were based in Southfield at one time. Maybe the new HQ was there. According to the article in the Historical Society Newsletter, the scene in the film with the keypunch operators was in the Lafayette Building.

**archfan** · March-05-17, 04:28 AM

The new headquarters was one of the first buildings in the new urban renewal zone in Corktown, in the 900 block of W. Lafayette. That building was replaced by the Greyhound station. They moved out to 29200 Northwestern Highway in Southfield in 1985. That building is still there.

This has a list of all their Detroit HQs: http://www.ftdi.net/newsletter/October2009.pdf

Corktown reference: http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/...1_archive.html

Photo of the 1960 building: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...iew=1up;seq=58

**Pam** · March-05-17, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by archfan

The new headquarters was one of the first buildings in the new urban renewal zone in Corktown, in the 900 block of W. Lafayette. That building was replaced by the Greyhound station. They moved out to 29200 Northwestern Highway in Southfield in 1985. That building is still there.

This has a list of all their Detroit HQs: http://www.ftdi.net/newsletter/October2009.pdf

Corktown reference: http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/...1_archive.html

Photo of the 1960 building: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...iew=1up;seq=58

Thanks for the info. Does anyone know why the company ended up leaving Michigan?
The Wiki page says the HQ is now in Illinois.

**EastsideAl** · March-05-17, 12:52 PM

The original FTD headquarters in Detroit was the building on the northeast corner of Farmer and Bates. That building was later bought and 'modernized' in the early '70s by the labor and personal injury law firm that became Sachs Waldman. It was purchased by Gilbert's people a couple of years ago and will probably be demolished soon.

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Name: 1000 farmer before lg.jpg
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**EastsideAl** · March-05-17, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by Pam

Thanks for the info. Does anyone know why the company ended up leaving Michigan?
The Wiki page says the HQ is now in Illinois.

The move happened soon after FTD, which had been a non-profit cooperative of independent florists, was bought out by a big hedge fund and turned into a for-profit company. A few years after the move it was taken public. It's been sold and resold, taken private and public, several times since then. Since 2013 its been an independent publicly traded company.

http://www.ftdcompanies.com/history

**Jason** · March-05-17, 02:38 PM

Thanks! Very interesting.

**1953** · March-06-17, 10:23 AM

After watching this, I wanted to take a ride on the steamboat Suwanee at Greenfield Village, but I real elsewhere that its been taken apart. Anyone know why they would do such a nasty thing???

1953

**jackie5275** · March-06-17, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by 1953

After watching this, I wanted to take a ride on the steamboat Suwanee at Greenfield Village, but I real elsewhere that its been taken apart. Anyone know why they would do such a nasty thing???

1953

They stopped running the boat at least 15 yrs ago. At first, it was taken out of commission "for repairs". It actually just sat in the water for several years. About 10 yrs ago, they decided it was too much money to operate, so it's been eliminated. I don't know where the boat is, but I've not seen it there in quite some time. We're there every year several times a summer.

**EastsideAl** · March-06-17, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by 1953

After watching this, I wanted to take a ride on the steamboat Suwanee at Greenfield Village, but I real elsewhere that its been taken apart. Anyone know why they would do such a nasty thing???

1953

As I understand it, following several excursion boat accidents, most notably the Lake George disaster [[which killed 20 people who were mostly from the Detroit area), the Suwanee became uninsurable at any rate that made financial sense. Since the boat was already docked and in need of another expensive rebuild, and the part of the village it went to, the Suwanee Park antique amusement area, had been removed in 2003 for the expansion of the Henry Ford Academy charter school, the Suwanee was taken out of service.

The ship itself wasn't historic, having been built in 1930 and fully rebuilt a couple of times thereafter, so the village's conservators and curators saw no great need to maintain the decaying and unusable boat, and the decision was eventually taken in 2011 to dismantle it. The most historic part of the boat, the engines that came from the Florida excursion steamboat that Edison had enjoyed taking in the early 1900s, were removed and stored.