Hudson's,
J.L Hudson was Detroit’s premier department store, a household name for all Michiganders. It appealed to the middle classes as well as the upper classes. The Downtown Detroit store boasted the tallest department store in the world until 1961, 25 stories above ground,4 basements, 300 delivery trucks, 500 delivery drivers, at top speed, 12,000 employees and the world’s largest American flag.
Hudson’s first suburban store, Northland in Southfield, MI opened in 1954 and many other suburban mall stores followed, The Northland Mall was the biggest at the time of its opening and boasted 10,000 free parking spaces but the downtown store was still the crown jewel into the 1960’s. Downtown had 2 one million dollar consecutive days in the early 1960’s.
All of the Hudson branches stayed open throughout the metro area and other cities in Michigan and Ohio. Yet, patriotism was not enough to keep the
downtown store open. It finally closed its doors for good in 1983 and was demolished in 1998.
- Now, the chain has been swallowed by Macy’s as have many retailers in the nation but Macy’s has not shown any interest in building a new downtown store.
