Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Circa 1917. "Detroit looking southeast along Woodward Avenue from the Whitney Building." Shorpy landmarks here include the Wayne County Building, Hotel Pontchartrain, Ford Building, Dime Bank and Detroit Post Office. View full size.
Wow! What an interesting and sad tagline! How prophetic! Although it has been sold to NY Macy's...JL Hudson's is just one of many stores that flourished when Detroit was at in heyday. Thank you for this photo! How I wish my dad were alive to share his own personal memories of these famous landmarks.
Now I see where those ubiquitous white hats in Shorpy photos come from. Detroit! Looking through the windows of the white building (down front center) you can see scads of them and possibly hat boxes as well.
And here I thought they came from Panama!
Perhaps it is too obvious, but most Detroiters, I dare say, would think it was remiss of you not to mention Hudson's as a landmark of this view.
[It is indeed a landmark although, not being a subject of previous posts here, not really a "Shorpy landmark." - Dave]
The store that was once the Walmart of Detroit. Very interesting story on the company and the building can be seen here.
The "smokestacks" on the far left are actually vents or pipes for steam, apparently for an underground steam exchange station for the City of Detroit (which provides steam heat and electricity from a central plant for city owned properties, such as the nearby Farmer Branch of the Detroit Public Library). In the early 1990's I worked in Downtown Detroit, and the building at 1413 Farmer St. was still there, but was soon demolished and replaced by a single steam vent pipe. I believe the stacks just went THROUGH the building, and were not a part of it.
The hotel opened in 1910 on the corner of Griswold and Grand River Ave. It is where the Kiwanis Club was founded in 1914.
It has since been torn down and a parking garage now sits on the old site. Yet another beautiful building lost to time.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5