http://streaming.thecreation.com/glaserproductions.com/hud.wmv

I bought the Hudsons book too and was amazed at the lavish interiors and sheer scale of the place. it had something liek 17 selling floors!! A whole floor of restaurants, Michigans largest bookstore and a huge theatre/auditorium were just some of its many attractions. In its heyday between the 1920s – !970 the store was so busy it had its own telephone exchange second in size only to the Pentagon.

It was also a home for exclusivity with many designers from Europe and America having shows there and many celebrities making appreances. If you bought something at Hudsons is was condsidered very classy and the best of its kind.

By the end of teh 1960s the whole of downtown Detroit was in decline and people preferred the saftey of shopping in the suburbs. Someone was shot at Hudsons and after the Detroit riots many people avoided downtown shopping . Hudsons contributed to its iown demise by opeing large out of town stores from the mid 1950s.

The store closed in 1982. Was kept secure and guarded for many years but eventually when it was sold was pillaged and fell ito disrepair. Many irtems that were stolen at the time including light fittings and furniture turn up for sale on the internet from time to time.

The destruction was on a par with that of Penn Station in New York. Unforgiveable. The store building may not have been able to operate on that scale any mor but would have made great mixed use – with offices, retail and maybe a hotel. No one will ever have the chance now…..

tragic.

You can at least still make their famous salad served in the stores many resturants..

http://www.grouprecipes.com/45006/classic-maurice-salad.html

Now, in 2010, the ignorance of Metro-Detroit (Detroit AND the suburbs, who ruined this landmark together–eventhough suburbanites typically act as though they had nothing to do with it–and I am a suburbanite who disagrees with that mentality) there is nothing there. A large parking lot and a reminder of what was, could have been and will never be again. The promise of new land developement was already shaky before the Superbowl, and now the economy has stalled progress.

The true crime is that this region, its culture and citizens have truly forgotten what it is like to be grand, glamorous, classy, and have any sense of civic pride in buildings. The ignorance is amazing to visitors when they hear the story.

Oh well, at least Chicago is nearby, and that lost Detroit slendor of great shopping streets can be relived though State Street and the Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s) Hudson’s-like store. Thank you for letting me express myself on this site. Great article.