1950's-1060's Woodward between Grand Circuis Park and Campus Martius Park

[Designerguy24]

Hope you folks can help me. I am trying to find out the names of every store that was located on Woodward between Campus Martius Park and Grand Curcus Park in the 1950's and 1960's and where they were located. Hope you can help me out!

[Detroitnerd]

Go to the Detroit Public Library's Main Branch

Sign in

Go to the open stacks where the city directories are

Take volumes for 1950-1960

Look in the back for Woodward Avenue addressees between Campus Martius and Grand Circus

Photograph the pages

Done

It's all open-stack work, so you don't need help or even to pay an out-of-town user fee

[DetroitPlanner]

a 20 year time span is a lot in the retail world. I can come up with some of these, but not all of them. It would also be a bit fuzzy as I don't recall much prior to 1970 as that is when I was about four. In the David Whitney Building was a men's Store, if I am not mistaken it was Capper and Capper, and S along the West side was Himelhols, Grinnel's Music department store, Baker's Shoes, a foundations store, Lady Orva,Woolworth's, Klien's Kresgee's Lerner's, Woolworths, Siegel's, Hughes and Hatcher, Cunningham Drugs, Sander's... I am sure there were more that I am forgetting.

In short this is not an easy project. Will require collaboration, concensus, maybe some historical records.

[EastsideAl]

Every one? That's a lot, and there was some substantial turnover during that period too. Not to mention the Kern block, which had more stores than just Kern's on it [[I remember Bond Clothiers, and Sam's Cut-Rate, which was around the corner in the old opera house), that was torn down around 1965. Still, I would guess that someone here with access to city or phone directories of the period could make pretty quick work of this. Or just take Detroitnerd's advice and go to the library.

But I like my memories of that strip, and just going on what I remember from the late '60s - early '70s when I was downtown a lot, here are some stores I remember. Of course, there were the old standbys that I'm pretty sure were there throughout that period like Hudson's, B.Siegel, Kresge's [[which used to have 2 different stores on that strip), Himelhoch's, Grinnell's, Wright-Kay. There were some local chains like Winkleman's, Meyer Treasure Chest, Hughes & Hatcher [[although they have moved down to this part of Woodward later). National chains: Woolworth's, Baker Shoes, Franklin Simon, Lerner Shops, Maryanne, A.S. Beck Shoes, Lane Bryant, Orva Hosiery, Capper & Capper. A couple of food places I remember were, of course, Sander's, and the Mayflower Coffee Shop, Otto's Krispy Korn, later the famous Flaming Embers. The only movie theater along that strip was the Telenews, which was renamed the Plaza after the decline of the newreels.

That's it for now, but there was more than these. And I know I'm going to kick myself for some obvious ones I missed.

[d2dyeah]

On Grand Circus Park there was a store called Paraphenallia. It was first opened in London by the originator of the mini skirt, Mary Quant. My cousin Judy worked there in the mid 60's and she says it was the best "hippie" store in Detroit. You had to be Grosse Pointe rich or a Rock and Roll star to shop there. My cousin said that Marianne Faithful would come in and shop and then pass out Quaaludes. The disco "Arthur" was a few doors away and attracted all of Detroit's movers and shakers, because it was owned by Richard Burton's ex-wife, and that Liz and Dick glamour even got to Detroiter's

[stasu1213]

Every one? That's a lot, and there was some substantial turnover during that period too. Not to mention the Kern block, which had more stores than just Kern's on it [[I remember Bond Clothiers, and Sam's Cut-Rate, which was around the corner in the old opera house), that was torn down around 1965. Still, I would guess that someone here with access to city or phone directories of the period could make pretty quick work of this. Or just take Detroitnerd's advice and go to the library.

But I like my memories of that strip, and just going on what I remember from the late '60s - early '70s when I was downtown a lot, here are some stores I remember. Of course, there were the old standbys that I'm pretty sure were there throughout that period like Hudson's, B.Siegel, Kresge's [[which used to have 2 different stores on that strip), Himelhoch's, Grinnell's, Wright-Kay. There were some local chains like Winkleman's, Meyer Treasure Chest, Hughes & Hatcher [[although they have moved down to this part of Woodward later). National chains: Woolworth's, Baker Shoes, Franklin Simon, Lerner Shops, Maryanne, A.S. Beck Shoes, Lane Bryant, Orva Hosiery, Capper & Capper. A couple of food places I remember were, of course, Sander's, and the Mayflower Coffee Shop, Otto's Krispy Korn, later the famous Flaming Embers. The only movie theater along that strip was the Telenews, which was renamed the Plaza after the decline of the newreels.

That's it for now, but there was more than these. And I know I'm going to kick myself for some obvious ones I missed.

Do you guys think stores will open on that strip again? What happened to the Footlocker store[[talking recently)? Why did it closed. There are no sports apparel stores downtown where a person could buy a pair of sneakers. The were many smaller boutiques that had catered to women on or off the strip also.

[TheKage]

You should check out the Woodward Heritage Tour, a series of street placards along that stretch of Woodward. I'm sure it has some info you're looking for, though certainly not all of it. Here's a sample of one of the signs, out in front of the old Vernor's location.
http://fromthekage.blogspot.com/2010...bottle-of.html

[DetroitPlanner]

Do you guys think stores will open on that strip again? What happened to the Footlocker store[[talking recently)? Why did it closed. There are no sports apparel stores downtown where a person could buy a pair of sneakers. The were many smaller boutiques that had catered to women on or off the strip also.

Footlocker and lady Orva becames a parking garage for the lofts.