  Ookpik Member Username: Ookpik Post Number: 98 Registered: 01-2007 |
 Here is a Neighborhood Corner Store - Hearndon's Confectionary. Does anyone recognize it? The store appears to be on the corner of Elmwood and ? For a larger version of the photo, please click here Ookpik | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3147 Registered: 10-2003 |
Just a guess but I'm going with 2945 Elmwood, southwest corner of Arndt. Hearndon seems to be another rare name - only 6 in the city in 1940, none employed as confectioners. The store, that year, appears to belong to a Mrs Nazarah Nahat, who is a confectioner. Looking ahead to 1961, still no Hearndon's Confectionary, however Annie Hearndon lives next door (or maybe above) at 2943 Elmwood. Maybe she or her husband owned and operated it during the 1950s, and now she lives as a widow next door. By 1967, the business has changed names to the Neighborhood Confectionary. 2943 Elmwood is vacant. Today, "X" marks the spot:  The brick building across the street you may recognize from this previous thread: Fortschrittsbund Hall? | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 354 Registered: 07-2006 |
Mikem, impressive yet again. I notice the house behind the building appears to match the still-existing house in your aerial. also, the house all the way to the left in the picture looks as if it has a similar structure as the one in the aerial, although there is little more to go off of other than the roof, so this is far from solid proof in itself. but i'd say you nailed it. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 2690 Registered: 10-2004 |
I doubt that the house to the left still stands. It would have been on the third lot from the corner. The one still standing is the fourth... | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3149 Registered: 10-2003 |
Looks as though there were once nine houses on that block, on the west side of the street. | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 355 Registered: 07-2006 |
LY - the house on the left is the 4th lot from the corner. if you look just to the left of the confectioner's building, you can see the left part of another house. the corner building is built all the way out, but the houses are set back. i almost missed it myself! | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 2691 Registered: 10-2004 |
The house to the rear seems only about 80 or ninety feet from the corner. And there doesn't appear to be an alley in between the two, unless it's filled with the junk shown in the photo. Besides, the roof appears different. | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3150 Registered: 10-2003 |
The house to the rear (on Arndt) appears to have exactly the same roof, with the same window locations. The house to the far left looks the same as the one remaining house on the block - probably the only one that was built of brick. I bet that store burned hot when if finally succumbed. | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 356 Registered: 07-2006 |
going off the scale on live.com, that house is, as you say, about 80 feet from the corner, apparently consistent with your figuring (if you are getting that from the picture, as i assume from how you worded your post.) I think an alley is in that picture, on the other side of the junk, although there is really no way to tell. in any case, i don't see how the roof is different at all. the windows are all in the same place, even the chimney is positioned in the same place. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4932 Registered: 11-2003 |
You guys are absolutely incredible. MikeM many props to you. This is so deeply Eastside, South of Gratiot, and north of Elmwood Cemetery. The aeriel photo looks like Dresden, 1945. and Germany took quite a hit. Nazarah Nahat is probably Lebanese, Chaldean, or some other mid-eastern name. There were plenty of folks with similar names on both Eastside and Westside of Detroit. The auto moguls recruited all over the middle east early in the 20th cent. Syrians, Lebanese, Chaldeans from Iraq, Iran, et. al. are included. In the 1950s, a lot of them lived in the Northend, up Woodward North of Highland Park as they bought nicer homes than the district shown on the photo. For example, jjaba knows of the Azam family who ran two corner stores at Mc Graw and 14th, on the Westside in the 1950s. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4933 Registered: 11-2003 |
The street name "Arndt" shows evidence of the Germans living in the area. As noted, there was a German Social Hall nearby. jjaba. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1177 Registered: 01-2005 |
Jjaba said: "For example, jjaba knows of the Azam family who ran two corner stores at Mc Graw and 14th, on the Westside in the 1950s." Did'ja know Abe? The youngest son who joined the DPD around 1957 or so? He shot a holdup man around 1964 or so (justifiable), but the area community picketed and boycotted the store for some time because of that. Was a shame, because the Azzam's were super folks, as was Abe. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4936 Registered: 11-2003 |
Ray1936, tell us more about Abe Azzam. Didn't he own the liquor store and parents lived and owned the adjacent store on the SW corner of Mc Graw and 14th? jjaba will tell you later how he knows the corner. Yes, 1964 was a bad year for them. The little boy who they killed was John Christian who stole a candybar. Shot him in the back running out the store. jjaba thinks this kid was the third person who they shot robbing them. Tell us as much as you can remember about Azzams. Ray1936 is amazing. Where do they live now? Are they still alive? As jjaba recalls, the parents had excapped from the Middleast and had tatoos from the Turks or something. What was their Nationality? They had a rough life. jjaba. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4937 Registered: 11-2003 |
So Officer Abe shot the kid, not the parents? I didn't remember how it went down. But it sure was a sensational story and was very traumatic for the entire family and neighborhood, and city, obviously. jjaba, life in Detroit in 1964. | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 154 Registered: 03-2006 |
Why does jjaba talk about himself in the second person? | ||
Ookpik Member Username: Ookpik Post Number: 99 Registered: 01-2007 |
Because he can.  Great job guys! Great stories too! Ookpik | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1178 Registered: 01-2005 |
Memory is coming back slowly. I thought it was some kind of holdup man that Abe shot, not a kid shoplifting candy. I know it was ruled justifiable homicide, and it wasn't the parents, but Abe who shot the person. Dang, the memory is pretty well warped, Jjaba. Abe worked at the (then) second precinct (Vernor Station), which took in everything inside the Boulevard west of the John Lodge. He was a tall, well built, good looking kid and was liked by everyone. Of course, his parents' store was within the above described area. About the time this happened I was transferred from the 2nd precinct to Motorcycle Traffic, and I kind of lost contact with Abe then forever more. It's hard to describe how densly-populated that area was forty-plus years ago. Probably still 50-50 racially. The Azzam store looked somewhat on Ookpik's photo in this thread. Maybe a little bigger and a little neater (no sagging doors!). | ||
Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1504 Registered: 04-2005 |
Ray. please send me an email PSIPdetroit at gmail dot com I have a few things I am sure you would like to see, I can't post them online. | ||
Mpow Member Username: Mpow Post Number: 240 Registered: 11-2003 |
i vote this one of the best threads so far in 2007. the detective "blowup" work alone makes it amazing. | ||
Gtat44 Member Username: Gtat44 Post Number: 50 Registered: 02-2007 |
Agreed Mpow send more Oopik..fascinating stuff! | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 2692 Registered: 10-2004 |
Who or what would be the expected clientele of a confectionery shop? I doubt, though, that the presence of a German Bund across the street would not have much mattered business-wise because such a similar club in downtown Milwaukee during the mid 1950s was already going into decline with its membership among the second or third generation Germans, or Austrians, in my case.. Its main facilities was a bar, which served typically only a few elderly guys, whereas the old gym downstairs housed a gymnastic group (Turner Verein) which I frequented on Thursday nights when I was ten or eleven. I believe its bowling alleys had already closed fifty years ago. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4938 Registered: 11-2003 |
jjaba was picket captain at Azams and for this was arrested in 1964, booked for "conspiracy to injure and defame." Detroit CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) met at 12th and Clairmont in a storefront. We were asked by the Azam neighbors to put a stop to killings at the store. This was the third killing there. With John Christian killing, the neighorhood had had enough of it. jjaba was an activist in grad. school at Wayne and was involved in several civil rights campaigns, this one being quite nasty. There were stories in the newspapers at the time. About a dozen of us were picked up at home and charged. We spent a night in Police Hq. and bailed out. Detroit CORE had campaigns at AAA, Krogers, Grinnell Bros., DPS, etc. while jjaba was involved, 1963-65. All charges were dropped when we decided to quit picketing. I'm not sure how long after that, the family packed it in and moved. jjaba still has a mug shot so we can find the date. Ray1936 is quite correct that at the time, the neighborhood was 50-50, with working class immigrant families, white appalachians, and black people there. These middle easters were pioneers willing to work long and hard in corner stores. From them, came the purchase of the larger groceries we see today run by Chaldeans. They lived there and jjaba recalls Azams sent their children to Catholic Schools out of the area. So if others know the story first-hand, please chime in. jjaba, Westsider. |
