Hudson's Department Store: The Heart of Downtown Detroit

At its peak, the J.L. Hudson Company department store in downtown Detroit was the tallest department store in the world and the second-largest by floor space, behind only Macy's in New York. But for Detroiters, the numbers were beside the point. Hudson's wasn't just a store. It was the center of the city.

The Building

Hudson's opened on Woodward Avenue in 1891 and grew over the decades into a 25-story, 2.2-million-square-foot colossus. The building had 51 elevators, its own zip code, and a basement grocery that Detroiters still talk about. At Christmas, the window displays drew crowds from across the region, and the store's giant American flag — one of the largest ever flown — became a downtown landmark.

Shopping at Hudson's was an event. You dressed up. You had lunch in the restaurant. You rode the elevators with the white-gloved operators. It was the kind of retail experience that has essentially ceased to exist in America.

The Decline and the Implosion

As suburban malls drew shoppers away from downtown in the 1970s and 80s, Hudson's struggled. The downtown flagship closed in 1983. The building sat empty for 15 years before being demolished in 1998 in what was, at the time, the largest planned building implosion in history. An estimated 100,000 people gathered to watch.

The site sat vacant for decades before a new development — including a new Hudson's-branded skyscraper — broke ground in the 2020s. But nothing will replace the original.

The Hudson's Department Store Detroit Retro T-shirt and Sweatshirt are for everyone who remembers. Find them in the Detroit collection.