The J. L. Hudson Building ("Hudson's") was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

located at 1206

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. It was constructed beginning in 1911, with additions throughout the years, before being "completed" in 1946, and named after the company's founder,

Joseph Lowthian Hudson Joseph Lowthian Hudson (October 17, 1846 – July 5, 1912), a.k.a. J. L. Hudson, was the merchant who founded the Hudson's department store in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson also supplied the seed capital for the establishment, in 1909, of Roy D. Ch ...

. Hudson's first building on the site opened in 1891 but was demolished in 1923 for a new structure. It was the flagship store for the

Hudson's The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was an upscale retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit (demolished October 24, 1998), was the talles ...

chain. The building was demolished in a controlled demolition on October 24, 1998, and at the time it was the tallest building ever imploded.

The structure

Designed by Smith, Hinchman, & Grylls, Hudson's consisted of approximately 33 levels: five basements, main floor, mezzanine, 2nd through 15th floors, 15 1/2 floor, 16th through 21st floors, 21 1/2 floor, and 22nd through 25th floors. Only the upper two basements through the 12th floor covered the entire footprint of the structure. A tower rose over 400 feet above the Farmer Street side. On all four sides, porcelain-covered copper letters spelled "HUDSON'S" in red neon. HudsonWindow

Hudson's boasted about 2.2 million sq. ft. of retail and office space, included several restaurants and was built in the Chicago School

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

. The facade was red brick above the second floor. Below that, it consisted of polished pink granite panels. Terra-cotta cornices and rosettes were extensively employed, along with ornamental ironwork. "JLH"-emblazoned ovals decorated frosted windows on the mezzanine and 3rd through 5th floors. The building measured tall from its second basement to the top of the penthouse tower. It was also topped by a high flagpole. The store closed January 17, 1983 (at the nadir of downtown Detroit's decline). After closure, Hudson's maintained its headquarters staff of about 1,100 in the downtown store. In May 1984, The J. L. Hudson Co. formally merged into the Department Store Division of the Dayton Hudson Corp., although Hudson's stores continued to carry the Hudson's name. All executive and buying positions transferred to

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, and other staff moved to space at the Northland Center store in Southfield. The last corporate department in the downtown Detroit building, credit operations, moved in October 1986. Dayton Hudson sold the building in December 1989. Hudson's was demolished by Controlled Demolition, Inc. at 5:47 p.m. ET on October 24, 1998. 20,000 people watched as the building was imploded — turning it into a tall pile of debris. The demolition shattered windows on many then-still-abandoned retail buildings across Woodward Avenue, created a large debris and dust cloud that shrouded many parts of downtown Detroit as far south as Jefferson Avenue in dust (including thousands of people and vehicles) and accidentally damaged a section of the elevated

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a Elevated railway, elevated People mover, automated people mover system in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using ...

. Many people watched the demolition from

Hart Plaza Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded '' Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit'' ...

at the foot of Woodward Avenue and Dieppe Gardens in Windsor. The city constructed a 955-space, four-level underground

parking garage A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...

at the site using parts of the basement of the demolished tower in 2001.

Future

In November 2013, Bedrock Detroit, who would be granted development rights of the two-

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

city-owned site, hired New York-based

SHoP Architects SHoP Architects is an architecture firm in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with projects located on five continents. Led by four principals, the firm provides services to residences, commercial buildings, schools and cultural institutions, as we ...

and Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates to lead the design process of redevelopment on the site. Bedrock broke ground on the development on December 14, 2017; the plans include a tower of 49 stories and and a mid-rise building of 14 stories. The project is expected to open in 2024.

Records

* Tallest department store / retail building in the world. * Second largest department store building in the United States, exceeded by

Macy's Herald Square Macy's Herald Square (originally named the R. H. Macy and Company Store) is a department store building on West 34th Street (Manhattan), 34th Street at Herald Square in New York City, New York (state), New York, United States. It was designed b ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. * Second tallest building to have a controlled implosion, tallest until the unfinished Meena Plaza I in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

was imploded in 2020. * Second largest building to have a controlled implosion, after the Sears Merchandise Center in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, which was imploded in 1994.

References

External links

Google Maps location of J. L. Hudson Department Store and Addition (Now Premier Parking Garage)
*
SkyscraperPage.com's Profile on J. L. Hudson Department Store and Addition

Full details of the J. L. Hudson building's demolition by Homrich Demolition

World Record for tallest steel framed building ever imploded

Video of J. L. Hudson Department Store Implosion

Hudson's hundredth 1881-1981 (booklet)
{{DEFAULTSORT:J. L. Hudson Department Store and Addition Target Corporation Downtown Detroit Defunct department stores based in Michigan Demolished buildings and structures in Detroit Demolished buildings and structures in Michigan Department store buildings in the United States History of Detroit Woodward Avenue Commercial buildings completed in 1891 Commercial buildings completed in 1923 Commercial buildings completed in 1946 Buildings and structures demolished in 1998 Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion 1911 establishments in Michigan 1946 establishments in Michigan 1983 disestablishments in Michigan 1998 disestablishments in Michigan Skyscrapers in Michigan Skyscrapers in Detroit Former skyscrapers Chicago school architecture in Michigan

The structure

Future

Records

See also

References

External links