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Hudson's: Detroit's Legendary Department Store (MI) (Images of America) | 
| Authors: Michael Hauser, Marianne Weldon
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $12.26
You Save: $7.73 (39%)
New (19) Used (11) from $11.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 500806
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0738533556
Dewey Decimal Number: 381.1410977434
EAN: 9780738533551
ASIN: 0738533556
Publication Date: November 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new-unread. As you would expect: tight spine, clean crisp pages and cover. Will ship in 24 hours. Expedited and international shipping OK.
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Product Description
For over a century, the J.L. Hudsons Department Store on Woodward Avenue was more than just a storeit was a Detroit icon and a world-class cultural treasure. At 25 stories, it was the worlds 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 departments offering fashionable clothing and home furnishings, the original Hudsons store featured an auditorium, a circulating library, dining rooms, barber shops, a photo studio, holiday exhibits, a magnificent place called Toytown, and the worlds largest American flag.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Great Book-Great Memories July 2, 2008
I was ecstatic to get this book. I loved Hudson's. Mom and Dad would take me and my sisters to see Toyland and Santa every Christmas. Do you remember those beautiful, colorful, Santa books they gave each child? We would always go to the 4th floor and have our feet x-rayed to buy new patent leather, Mary Janes. We would eat at the restaurant there on the 13th? floor. When I was 16, I applied for a job at Hudson's and would work Saturdays while in school and every day in the Summers. I worked on the main floor in the stationary dept. I loved all my co-workers. (wish I knew if they were still around) At the Packaging station in each dept..there was one station that was used for the Stationary dept and the Men's dept. One of the wrappers later became a Mo-Town Singer. I may be wrong but I think it may of been Aretha Franklin. She was very pleasant and I liked her a lot. I was asked to be Gretal (Hansel) in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1959? I had a ball...The snow was falling and Christmas Carols, playing. What great memories of a great store and a great city. I miss Michigan as we moved away in the sixties. My heart is still there. I will treasure this book, forever.
 HUDSON'S February 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fascinating book on a spectacular department store. This store in so many ways reflected Detroit at its zenith, and its demise reflected the decent of Detroit into urban ruin, a city that has become a metaphor for urban decay. This building when imploded, was the largest building ever to be imploded, leave it to Detroit to find away to even raze its skyscrapers. The only thing that has saved Detriots great skyscrapers of the 20s and 30s is their very size, I fear for them if these demolition experts find a way to destroy a building of 30 stories or more. This book gives some very interesting history on this amazing building and about Hudsons in general. The store was massive, like a Detroit version of Philadephia's Wannamakers or New York's Macy's, but with one difference..these two company's flagship buildings are still extant. At the turn of the 20th century into the 30s, Detroit was considered the most beautiful major city in american, it was the ultimate success story, it was rich and prosperious, with spectacular Beaux Art buildings and people flocked to the city, that what makes the unbelievable scuttleing of the city unconscionable, it's a urban wastland, with all of these beautiful buildings in total decay, only their amazing construction keeps them standing. You just want to yell..WAKE UP, DETROIT..these buildings can never be replaced. This is a good book on an amazing building and company..it's interesting how the implosion of this building is a metaphor for the implosion of the city proper. I read it was destroyed for a new developement and you wonder..why could they not have rehabilitated this building, because I can assure you, the building that replaces it will not be half the building this was, nor will the company ever replace the great Hudson's. The demise of Detroit is stain on America.
Memories of a true shopping experience! August 9, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Anyone who shopped in Detroit's once bustling downtown Woodward corridor should have this book. Starting in the 1930's my grandmother would take the bus downtown at least once a week to shop at Hudson's and the surrounding stores. As a young girl in the mid 1960's, I occasionally traveled with her and some of my earliest and fondest memories are of wandering around the upper 12 floors and two basement levels of merchandise. You would drop your coats off on the forth floor, have lunch on the mezzanine or perhaps the basement cafeteria, shop all afternoon, catch an early dinner at the Riverview room on the 13th floor and then head home with your purchases shipped to your home within a day or two. It was truly an experience that no mall today can come close to. The book consists mostly of photographs and each is sure to spark memories for anyone who had the pleasure of shopping at Hudson's. Photographs cover the start and gradual expansion of the store through it's heyday years in the 1950's followed by it's slow demise in the late 1960's up to demolition day. The most enjoyable photos for me were of ToyTown that covered the usual toy department along with a massive Christmas holiday display and home to the "real" Santa Clause in the adjoining two story auditorium on the 12th floor. I cried the day the store was demolished and I am sure that Grandma was rolling in her grave but this book helped to rekindle my memories of the place and relive a very enjoyable part of my childhood.
Hudson's: Detroit's Legendary Department Store Review January 18, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A very good book for old Detroiters that brings back many good memories!
Regional Department Stores - a thing of the past. January 28, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
In today's increasingly competitive retail market, it's nice to see books documenting regional department stores. I have my fond memories of J.L. Hudson (known to me as just "Hudson's").
Before the merger with "Dayton's" and then then later re-named as "Marshall Field's" in the 1990's, I have fond memories of Hudson's - particularly the downtown Detroit location. When I was a child, my sister and I would be overwhelmed with the Christmas decorations. The picture with Santa; the imfamous "Santa Bear" - (later adopted by Field's). My mother would enjoy shopping in the "Oval Room" for her shoes, along with "Woodward" suits for my dad. It was the place for that one stop shopping: clothing, furniture, even appliances.
Nevertheless, what gave Detroit, particularly Michigan, an identity - other than the big three auto companies, K-Mart, Meijer, and Motown music, was Hudson's.
The effects of the current onslaught of department store mergers is evident. In several metropolitan areas, communities are losing their store (i.e. Kaufmann's; Robinson-May; Foley's, etc) "identity" as Federated Department Stores continue with re-branding old time stores into "Macy's" into a national brand.
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