Gratiot and Van Dyke.

[stasu1213]

Does anyone here remember shopping at the Sears and Roebuck on Gratiot and VanDyke? There were also Floresheims shoes, and I think a Kentucky Fried Chicken over there also. Are there any photos taken of that intersection dating from the 40s to the 70s?

[jcole]

I remember going to the Sears as a little kid in the '60s and my brother in law worked in 'Men's Furnishings' when he and my sister were first married. Wasn't that one set up like the Sears out on Grand River, where they had a bridge over the street to a Federals on the other side?

[Detroit Stylin]

If so where would it have been at then? I am having a hard time trying topicture anything else that was there other than what is now.....

[jcole]

I think it was on Gratiot north of Van Dyke where that fenced in apartment building is now.

[jiminnm]

I worked at the Sears store at 7 Mile and Mack, oh so long ago. The Gratiot and Van Dyke store was where we sent folks who wanted something we didn't carry. It was on the northeast corner, or thereabouts.

[jcole]

I worked at the Sears store at 7 Mile and Mack, oh so long ago. The Gratiot and Van Dyke store was where we sent folks who wanted something we didn't carry. It was on the northeast corner, or thereabouts.

We used to go to the Mack/7 Sears for tools and hardware items. I don't remember them carrying a line of clothing and stuff like the big one on Gratiot. Did they?

[Hornwrecker]

It was on the SE corner of Gratiot and VD

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=1;resnum=1

[jcole]

Thanks, Hornwrecker. It's been a long time.

[eriedearie]

The Gratiot-Van Dyke Sears was where my family shopped. According to mom and dad, aunts and uncles, Sears sold the best brand of wall and ceiling paint anywhere. And they sold the best in shoes, especially my dad's work boots. Oh, and his work clothes came from there also.

The store was located on the northwest corner, which if you were going toward downtown, it was on the right hand side of Gratiot, just before crossing Van Dyke.

I don't remember a KFC being around there in the 50s and 60s. But I seem to remember a Top Hat or White Castle; one of the burger places, maybe kitty corner to Sears?

[detroitjim]

I got my first real bike there a red Sears Spider.Learned to ride on two wheels with it.
As I recall its' layout was similar to the Highland Park store and wouldn't be surprised if they were both built around the same time. The VD-G store was closed sometime in the mid 70's,I'd say about 75 and razed soon there after. The projects that occupy that area now ,certainly have been there since 1980.

[Mikeg]

In that Nov. 3, 1931 photo that Hornwrecker linked to, Gratiot is in the foreground [[outbound is to the left) and the car at the right is on northwest-bound Van Dyke waiting to cross Gratiot.

Here's a 1967 aerial view of the intersection:
Attachment 3575

[Detroitej72]

An apartment building now stands where the old Sears store once stood. I remember the old Sears was boarded up and abandoned for some years before the apartment complex was developed.

I always wondered, is the apartment and Sears the same building?

[crawford]

I worked at the Sears store at 7 Mile and Mack, oh so long ago. The Gratiot and Van Dyke store was where we sent folks who wanted something we didn't carry. It was on the northeast corner, or thereabouts.

Where is 7 Mile/Mack? I thought 7 Mile ends a little east of Hayes?

Have the streets been renamed?

[jcole]

It's were the 7 and Mack Shopping Center was.

[crawford]

Is this the current day Pointe Plaza?

Sorry for the [[native West Sider) confusion, but I don't think 7 Mile intersects with Mack, unless the street stops and then starts again.

[jcole]

It's called Moross there. 7 technically ends at Kelly Rd. I don't know why it's referred to as 7 and Mack unless it was 7 at one time and then became Moross. I grew up at 7 and Kelly and we always said 7 and Mack for that intersection. It's like 8 Mile becomes Vernier just past Kelly but most people referred to it as 8 Mile

Edit: I just looked at an old 1930's map, and it shows the street as being 7 Mile up to Mack Ave. back then, so it must have been changed to Moross at a later date.

[EastsideAl]

That was our Sears store too. I remember going there every couple of weeks when I was a kid in the '60s and early '70s for clothes, hardware, appliances, gardening stuff, etc. It was on the southeast corner of Gratiot and Van Dyke. I got my first bike there in about 1965. I still remember the smell of carmel corn that would hit you when you first walked into the place, and the really cool [[well, they seemed cool to me) bright blue double knit slacks I bought there that were the first clothes I ever bought with my own money.

There was a Top Hat across Van Dyke on the southwest corner until about 1970 that we would stop into for a bag of burgers and some fries. I believe it was replaced with a KFC that was later changed into a Rally's and is now a Wendy's. On the northwest corner was the large Laurie Bros. supermarket, which was one of the first supermarkets in the area, it carried a lot of Italian stuff from the old days in the neighborhood and also had a very extensive liquor counter. That building still operates as a market. When I was little there was a very large barber shop in a building just south of the Sears parking lot where I used to get my hair cut sometimes.

After the Sears store closed in the mid-70s I used its parking lot to learn how to drive, and later to practice stick shifting. We used to do donuts there in the winter until they built the apartments on that site in the early '80s.

[EastsideAl]

As for Moross, a lot of old time eastsiders still call it 7 Mile, and think of it as an extension of that street and not a separate street. I think the street was officially named Moross going way back, but like everyone called McNichols "6 Mile" [[and Seymour, for that matter), almost everybody called it 7 Mile anyway, so it was shown as such on maps. I think if you asked my Dad where Mack and Moross is he wouldn't know, but he sure as hell would know Mack and 7.

The 7-Mack Sears store was small compared to the full-line Gratiot store, and much further away from us, so we rarely went there, but I remember the JC Penny's store that stood at the northeast end of the center itself quite vividly.

[jcole]

The Sears store was a stand alone on the SE corner of 7 and Mack. The shopping center was on the NW corner,and I think that's where the Penney's was.
Harper Woods was Gratiot Twp until 1951 and I think that's when the name of 7 Mile may have been changed to Moross. As I wrote above, it was 7 Mile all the way to Mack when it was Gratiot Twp.

[kellyroad]

Thanks, Hornwrecker. It's been a long time.

Technically, Sears could be both the south east corner or the nort east. Most Detroiters think of Gratiot as running north, north, east but VD runs NWW until after Gratiot where it runs directly north/south.

[stasu1213]

I remember going to the Sears as a little kid in the '60s and my brother in law worked in 'Men's Furnishings' when he and my sister were first married. Wasn't that one set up like the Sears out on Grand River, where they had a bridge over the street to a Federals on the other side?

No it wasn't set up like the Sears and Federals on Grand River and Greenfield. The Federals in that area was on VanDyke and Harper. Sears was the only major chain in that area. Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut didn't come until the seventies.

[MikeM]

The Sears store was a stand alone on the SE corner of 7 and Mack. The shopping center was on the NW corner,and I think that's where the Penney's was.
Harper Woods was Gratiot Twp until 1951 and I think that's when the name of 7 Mile may have been changed to Moross. As I wrote above, it was 7 Mile all the way to Mack when it was Gratiot Twp.

Maybe, but Moross is entirely within Detroit city limits. Moross [[Morass), like Vernier, was built west from the lake shoreline before the mile-road grid was extended east to meet them. Once they were connected it probably became common to interchange the names. And Crawford is being silly; I've lived in the vicinity nearly my entire life and have always called it Seven Mile unless I'm giving directions.

[Fury13]

Maybe, but Moross is entirely within Detroit city limits. Moross [[Morass), like Vernier, was built west from the lake shoreline before the mile-road grid was extended east to meet them. Once they were connected it probably became common to interchange the names. And Crawford is being silly; I've lived in the vicinity nearly my entire life and have always called it Seven Mile unless I'm giving directions.

True. I learned pretty early in my childhood that while the street sign read "Moross," you instantly translate that to "Seven Mile." Same thing for "McNichols" and "6 Mile."

[KENSINGTONY]

The Sears store was on the northeast corner,where the apartments are now.It had 2 separate buildings,like the Wards at 7 & Gratiot did.And no,the Sears building was demolished for the apartments.

[EastsideAl]

The Sears store was a stand alone on the SE corner of 7 and Mack. The shopping center was on the NW corner,and I think that's where the Penney's was.
Harper Woods was Gratiot Twp until 1951 and I think that's when the name of 7 Mile may have been changed to Moross. As I wrote above, it was 7 Mile all the way to Mack when it was Gratiot Twp.

That Sears store was near the SW corner of Mack & 7 Mile [[Moross). The 7-Mack shopping center was where today's Pointe Plaza is, on the NE corner of that intersection. JC Penny was at the far northeastern end of that center in a separate building.

Mikem is correct, Moross is entirely within the Detroit city limits until it crosses Mack. The border between Detroit and Harper Woods [[formerly Gratiot Twp.) is two blocks north at Kingsville.