As I am going about my daily business in metro Detroit yesterday, I ran across a video from the Detroit Historical Society about the Floral Telegraph Delivery, better known as FTD, and their 1960 convention in what was called Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place). Watching the video made me recall memories of the old J.L. Hudson Department store, which was one of the tallest department stores in the city of Detroit, if not the country, and was as well known in Detroit as Marshall Field was in Chicago and as Macy's was in New York City. The Greater Hudson's complex was bounded by Farmer, Gratiot, Woodward and Grand River in downtown Detroit. Generations of Detroiters shopped here for various products (they delivered to your house if a product you purchased was large) and was especially grand around the Christmas holidays. Many metro Detroit brides consulted Hudson's on all aspects of their special day, from their trousseau to furnishing their marital home, and one memorable promotion was the "Good Ol' Summertime," which had a setup that hearkened back to the late 1890s-early 1900s. A large flag was draped on the Woodward side of the building on June 14, Flag Day. it was retired in 1976 to the Smithsonian Institute, and has been respectfully destroyed as of 2023. Business dropped off in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the store closed in 1983. Hudson's was demolished in October 1998, and currently, a mixed use building is being constructed on the site. I think of some pictures I discovered in my late father's collection, taken at Detroit's Labor Day Parade in 1981, where the parade passed by Hudson's on its way to Kennedy Square for the rally. One picture is shown below.
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