Michigan

Relive the history of Hudson's department store, a fixture in downtown Detroit , when retailing was an event and the department store ruled the shopping scene and was a Detroit icon.

The J. L. Hudson Company redefined the way Detroiters shopped and enjoyed leisure time. Many Detroiters share memories of times spent shopping and enjoying spectacular events sponsored by Hudson's. A solid and lofty icon built by businesspeople who believed in their passion, Hudson's defined Detroit's downtown, creating trends and traditions in consumer culture that still resonate with us today. Now and in the future, as Hudson's boxes, shopping bags, and artifacts are discovered in closets, attics, basements, and flea markets, many will remember that it was once as solid a civic fixture as the City-County Building or the Detroit Public Library.

For over a century, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store was more than just a store - it was a Detroit icon and a world-class cultural treasure.

At 25 stories, Hudson's was the world's tallest department store, and was at one time home to the most exceptional offerings in shopping, dining, services, and entertainment. The store prided itself on stocking everything from grand pianos to spools of thread. In addition to regular department store fare, the original Hudson's store featured an auditorium, a circulating library, dining rooms, barber shops, a photo studio, holiday exhibits, a magnificent place called Toytown, and the world's largest American flag. As a legendary symbol of urban and entrepreneurial American history, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store earned a permanent place in Detroit's collective memory. Although "the big store" no longer graces Woodward Avenue, its legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of generations, and in the remarkable photographs that preserve its reign.

Join department store historian Bruce Allen Kopytek in this history of Jacobson's, a beloved Michigan institution for over 100 years. Winner of the Michigan Notable Book Award for 2012.

Reenter the marvelous stores and meet the personalities who transformed Jacobson's from its humble Reed City origins to a staple of sophistication throughout Michigan and into the rest of the country. The brainchild of a retail genius, this deluxe specialty store gave customers a peerless social, shopping and dining destination. Experience anew the refined beauty of its Williamsburg-style Grosse Pointe store, the chic designer world of its Birmingham ensemble, or the charm and allure of its original Florida branch in Sarasota, revealing the secrets which made Jake's the dazzling store it was, and why it remains so profoundly missed by anyone who entered through its solid wooden doors.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the center for shopping in western Michigan with department stores, five-and-dimes and more, until the advent of the shopping mall.

For decades, downtown Grand Rapids enjoyed a long run in the limelight as the epicenter of shopping in western Michigan. The vibrant Monroe Avenue corridor included three homegrown department stores, several chain department stores, five-and-dime stores, and scores of clothing and specialty retailers. It weathered mother nature, wars, the Great Depression, the advent of neighborhood shopping centers, and civil disturbances--but the one change it could not overcome was the regional shopping mall.