Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2007 » Furniture store on Washington Blvd. that closed in 1984? « Previous Next »
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Al_t_publican
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Username: Al_t_publican

Post Number: 119
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 1:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I still have two pieces of furniture from a store on Washington Blvd. that closed in 1984. I remember going in there after Christmas '84 when I heard they were having a going out of business sale. I was living in Lafayette Park at the time. I ended up buying a chaise longue and a dining room table that I brought out to San Diego a few years ago. The store was on the eastside of Washington Blvd. a block or so south of Grand Circus Park. The business had a German sounding name, if I recall right.

I've had folks from SE Mich ask me over the years where I bought the chaise but couldn't remember.

Does anyone remember the name of this furniture store and how long they were in business?
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Dabirch
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Username: Dabirch

Post Number: 2025
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 1:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

I still have two pieces of furniture from a store on Washington Blvd. that closed in 1984.




I think it is time you bought some new furniture.
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Itsjeff
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Username: Itsjeff

Post Number: 7325
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 1:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember there being a high-end Italian furniture importer. Apparently it was quite a thing, since he was the only American distributor of that line. Whatever it was called.
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Al_t_publican
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Username: Al_t_publican

Post Number: 120
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 2:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, it was a something of a quasi-high end biz. There is an apartment building on the same side of Washington Blvd. with a similar sounding name.

Dabrich, the chaise is a classic piece of furniture, not some beanbag that goes with a water bong. The dining room table is inlaid parquet, not Formica from Target.

Did Macy's take over Marshal Field's in Mich?

My sister said she was in Hockeytown Cafe. I told her I thought that was the former Hughes, Hatcher, Suffrin mens clothing store, but wasn't sure.
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Dabirch
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Username: Dabirch

Post Number: 2026
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Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 2:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

Dabrich, the chaise is a classic piece of furniture, not some beanbag that goes with a water bong. The dining room table is inlaid parquet, not Formica from Target.




Well played.
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Itsjeff
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Username: Itsjeff

Post Number: 7327
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Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 2:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

On the upside, Dabirch now knows what furniture goes with a water bong.
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Downtown_dave
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Username: Downtown_dave

Post Number: 113
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 2:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Al_t, Hockeytown Cafe is in the former Hughes, Hatcher, Sufferin building.

And there was once a Gardner-White furniture store located on Washington Blvd. at the spot you describe - but this might have been after the store you purchased from moved out. I think this building is now called the Madison Bldg. Restoration of its white terra cotta facade was completed just before the New Year.
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Dds
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Username: Dds

Post Number: 83
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Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 3:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

On the upside, Dabirch now knows what furniture goes with a water bong.




Well played.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 3405
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 3:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Are we talking Himmelhoch's (which had an entrance on both Woodward and Washington Blvd)? Or was that just a clothing store?
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 676
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 3:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember the Garner White downtown too. Only furniture store I can remember downtown. Hudson's of course had furniture.
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Itsjeff
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Username: Itsjeff

Post Number: 7328
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 4:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If Atl-t and I are thinking of the same place, this wasn't a traditional furniture store. It was a design studio featuring furniture created by one manufacturer. They would advertise in high-end home magazines and give the contact info for the Detroit showroom.
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Dabirch
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Username: Dabirch

Post Number: 2027
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 5:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

On the upside, Dabirch now knows what furniture goes with a water bong.




Damn I wish I had not bought that new living room set.
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Gianni
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Username: Gianni

Post Number: 265
Registered: 05-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 5:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Are you thinking of Adler-Schnee? I have only heard of this place, it was slightly before my time. I think it was in Harmonie Park where Coach's Corner is now, not Washington Blvd.
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Ha_asfan
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Username: Ha_asfan

Post Number: 73
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 7:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

During the MEMPHIS phase there was a retailer on Washington Blvd with higher end european furniture...it was short lived but, it was good...I'll do some resesarch and come up with the name.
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Gary
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Username: Gary

Post Number: 196
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 7:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember the furniture store on Washington Blvd. I used to pass by there all the time...I think it was Englander Triangle, but I could be wrong. It's been a long time.
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Psip
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Username: Psip

Post Number: 1350
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 7:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wasn't there a "House of Denmark" store downtown? Perhaps thats what you are thinking about.
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Ramcharger
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Username: Ramcharger

Post Number: 200
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 8:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I believe you're thinking of Gardner & Schumacher Inc. which was located at 1420 Washington Boulevard. They opened in 1931. They sold very high quality furniture, not like the junk that's sold these days. I still own some pieces from them that were purchased in the 60's. I'm surprised that your chaise longue and table don't have labels. All of my pieces do.

(Message edited by Ramcharger on January 04, 2007)
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Al_t_publican
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Username: Al_t_publican

Post Number: 121
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I believe it was Gardner & and Schumacher, which I sometimes confused for Himmelhoch's. I think there still is an apartment building on Washington Blvd. called Himmelhoch.

Psip. Funny you should ask about the company labels. I looked at booth pieces today and they don't have any labels.

Among my other Detroit collectibles are some coffee cups from the downtown Quickie donut shops and some plates from the Detroit Golf Club where my grandfather once worked. And my DFD uniform that is in a box.
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Detroitbill
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Username: Detroitbill

Post Number: 137
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Was the Memphis furniture store on Washington Blvd or in the Park Shelton/Art Center Area? It seems to me there was a Memphis Distributor in the Arts Center area from around 1988 to 1991. Very high end furniture,,
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Ha_asfan
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Username: Ha_asfan

Post Number: 74
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Posted on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

In the park shelton was a studio selling memphis run by tom verwest and..........i forgot the other guy. it was the same time frame that there was a good retailer on the blvd selling lesser quality items. that isn;t to say the blvd place was tacky, it wasn't, it was nice. the park shleton joint just had the far higher end products which, even then were costly$$$$. They were competing with arkitektura in b'ham which ofcourse, won the battle and is still today, the only true dealer of modern in town...i don't count dwr.
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Al_t_publican
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Username: Al_t_publican

Post Number: 122
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 1:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That should have been Ramcharger I was addressing about the labels. I looked again. Nothing on them indicating Gardner & Schumacher, but I'm 90 percent sure that was the biz on Washington Blvd. I was at a fire once in the Himmelhoch Aparts in around '83 and remember the building being probably the same that housed said furniture store.

I lived downtown for 13 years on and off between 1984 and 2001. I had a running quip that I was still waiting for a Rite Aid to move in. It never did in Corktown. Not much of anything happened in the ten years I was in that neighborhood.
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Mjb3
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Username: Mjb3

Post Number: 124
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 8:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dabirch,

Better be careful with that waterbong on your sofa. Nothing cleans bongwater out of cloth fabric. Steam cleaner rented from grocery store will remove stain, but odor will linger.
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 876
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 8:58 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That store would have been one of the few retailers who were still on Washington blvd. after the decimation caused by the construction of the simian excercise equipment--our tax dollars at work. Many long-established WB retailers were dealt a fatal blow during that construction--for a failed experiment. Thank god someone had the balls to tear that schitt down and restore Washington blvd. back to a functional blvd.
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Mcwalbucksnfitch
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Username: Mcwalbucksnfitch

Post Number: 32
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 10:05 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Did Macy's take over Marshal Field's in Mich?"

To answer your question, all of the Marshall Field's locations as well as most of the other 'May Department Store' brands across the country have become Macy's as of September 9, 2006
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Ha_asfan
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Username: Ha_asfan

Post Number: 76
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 11:21 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Urban Architecture was in the Park Shelton run by Keith "Renee" Johnson...the Washington Blvd place, lost to the fog of days gone by.
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Neilr
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Username: Neilr

Post Number: 423
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Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 12:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My old map of the downtown streets and stores (perhaps from the 1950's) shows Robinson Furniture at 1420 Washington Blvd. between Grand River and Clifford.
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Al_t_publican
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Username: Al_t_publican

Post Number: 123
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 2:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mjb3: I gave my waterbong to my son who is in his 30s. He's a juicer, not a head, and turned it into a martini shaker.

My motto for '007:
Dewars, not war. Bushmills, not Bush
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Mjb3
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Username: Mjb3

Post Number: 125
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 3:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nothing like a sensamillan martini to unwind after a long day at the office. At least your recycling...

My motto:
Be what you is, not what you is not
Folks what do that are the happiest lot
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Ramcharger
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Username: Ramcharger

Post Number: 202
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 5:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Neilr, I have a copy of that map as well. Supposedly it’s from 1938 even though it shows the J. L. Hudson’s parking structure which wasn't built until sometime during the 1950’s. It does show Robinson Furniture at 1420 Washington Blvd. so Gardner & Schumacher must have moved from some other location after that map was drawn. As you can see, their label clearly states “ Since 1931”. A Google search only came up with only two references to Gardner & Schumacher, one of which was a trademark registration record which lists their address in Sept. 1972 as 1420 Washington Blvd. In addition I know first hand that they were at that location in 1968.




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