Hudson鈥檚 was imploded in 1998, reducing the immense department store to rubble in a matter of minutes. But memories of the downtown emporium aren鈥檛 as quickly erased.
It鈥檚 as futile as trying to catch the wind, but pining for the past is a very human trait, one that seems to escalate the more uncertain the future appears. Remembering Hudson鈥檚: The Grande Dame of Detroit Retailing, by Michael Hauser and Marianne Weldon (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99), will no doubt stir up a raft of warm remembrances.
The book is chock-full of 200-plus photos, mostly of artistic window designs and elaborate in-store displays, all dated and paired with informative captions. There鈥檚 also a section on the building itself, with photos of how the exterior changed and grew through the years.
Hudson鈥檚 began as a modest haberdashery in 1881, but it would mushroom well beyond what founder Joseph L. Hudson could have dreamed. Eventually, Hudson鈥檚 became the world鈥檚 tallest department store, and only Macy鈥檚 in New York surpassed it in square footage.
Hauser and Weldon underscore that Hudson鈥檚 was indeed a department store, with an expansive book department on the mezzanine, a framing service and art gallery, a vast seventh-floor millinery, even a handkerchief department. And the 12th-floor toy department gave Santa鈥檚 workshop a run for its money. If you couldn鈥檛 find an item at Hudson鈥檚, it probably didn鈥檛 exist.
Remembering Hudson鈥檚 does a fine job of saluting the downtown treasure, but what鈥檚 confounding is a final chapter devoted to Hudson鈥檚 Northland, which opened in 1954. It seems a digression. And why exclude Hudson鈥檚 Eastland, which followed in 1957? It would have been more cohesive to focus only on the downtown store, particularly because the book鈥檚 subtitle is 鈥淭he Grande Dame of Detroit Retailing.鈥
Regardless, this slender volume will keep anyone who鈥檚 even moderately interested in Detroit鈥檚 retailing history glued to its pages.
|
| 听 |
|
