Our Prodigious Pickle Producing Past

William Bros. & Charbonneau catalog, c. 1900

Pickle packers have always been a prosperous presence in our part of Michigan. Local production of pickles is presently popular given the public’s passion for Perkin’s, McCLure’s, Topor’s and Suddenly Sauer. However, a century ago, Detroiters procured packages of pickles prepared by William Bros. & Charbonneau, headquartered at 19th Street and Grand River Avenue. They had eleven factories from Pinckney to Perry, with others scattered in places like Waterford, Manchester, and Grass Lake. Patrons could pick a pickle style for any palate, including French, English, or American, and pack their pantries with parceled portions of pickles from petite to profuse. – D.S.

Pickle Pine Pails

Pickle Picnic Pints

 

Hudson’s Holidays

1950s window display

Many people miss the pageantry and decorations that surrounded the downtown J.L. Hudson Company Department Store during the holiday shopping season. Santa was there, as were window displays full of enticing children’s toys. The 12th floor auditorium was even converted to retail space for the overflowing toy department in December. These images give us a glimpse of the festivities as they were over a half-century ago.
- D.S.

Auditorium-turned-shopping paradise (1940s)

A crowd gathered to see Santa in 1949.

All Roads Lead to Delray

The area in the present day shadow of Zug Island may seem like an unlikely location for “the largest building in the world erected exclusively for fair and exposition purposes.” However, in 1889, this was exactly what stood there. The area directly west of Historic Fort Wayne, along the Detroit River, was home to the Detroit International Exposition and Fair of 1889. This spectacle was intended to demonstrate the might of this modern city as the Twentieth Century drew near. The brochure from which the above image was taken touted the city’s accessibility to rail and water, its public gas and electricity consumption, and Detroit industries of the era—packaged seeds, stoves, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco, as evidence of this might.

Engraving showing the exposition grounds taken from the August 17, 1889 Harper’s Weekly supplement.

And a mighty city requires a mighty exposition. A supplement in the August 17, 1889 issue of Harper’s Weekly promised that, only a “profession pedestrian” would be able to take in the scope of the event in one day. Luckily for all the amateur ambulists, fair goers were treated to displays of livestock, musicians, a gallery of over 300 paintings, and demonstrations of technological marvels for ten days. And of course there was the exposition’s very regal main building itself, designed by Louis Kamper, fresh from designing the Hecker House at Woodward and Ferry Avenues. Unfortunately the structures did not last long after the exposition’s two more annual occurrences; in 1895 the grounds were razed by the Solvay Process Company, eager to mine the salt beneath. The same access to railroads and waterways that made this area prime for such a grand exposition, coupled with the natural resources beneath also made it fertile for heavy industry, continuing to feed the city’s growth into the 20th century. – B.R.

The Lifesaver

Born in Devonshire, England in 1843, John Horn Jr. immigrated to the United States in the early 1860s. His father operated a tavern at the base of Woodward Avenue at the public wharf. John Jr. was described as a large man with broad shoulders and impressive physique. He worked for his father as a bartender for a short time, and was involved in the Detroit Baseball Club where he gained notoriety as an outfielder and batter. However, young John Jr. was always drawn to a life on the water. After becoming a Great Lakes captain he purchased the steamboat Favorite and operated a ferry from Detroit to Windsor in 1867. Horn’s ferry business flourished and in 1877 he joined his steamer Garland with three other competing ferries to form the Detroit Windsor Ferry Company.

John Horn’s athletic ability and good nature positioned him for a more meaningful purpose on the Detroit River as a lifesaver. Multiple accounts exist of his heroic exploits to save people who had fallen into the river. His first rescue was a Mr. Manning of Windsor in May of 1865. Horn rescued nine men from the disaster of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad Depot on April 11, 1866. After saving the nine men, Horn was too exhausted to swim and sixteen men perished in the water after the disaster. In March of 1873 Horn struggled for more than seventeen minutes in the water, swimming around floating ice and slush, to reach Miss Louise McKenzie. As a result of that endeavor, he spent several weeks recovering from frostbite, hypothermia, and pneumonia. On July 4, 1873, a crowd of more than 500 stood by and watched as the daughter of Mr. F. Barlow fell from a boarding plank and began to sink into the river. Horn was summoned from his house near the wharf and ran to the scene and was the only person willing to jump in to save the young girl.

In 1871 the City of Detroit awarded Horn a medal for saving more than 110 people from the Detroit River. Unfortunately, the medal was lost in the river during the saving of Miss Louise McKenzie. As word spread of Horn’s lifesaving ability, the United States Congress decided to award John Horn Jr. with a Congressional Gold Medal for heroism. Prior to that time, Congress had awarded medals for heroism in sea water rescues. Horn proved that the Great Lakes and inland rivers were equally as dangerous and possessed brave rescuers as well. The solid gold medal featured the profile bust of Horn on the front and an inscription on the back that read “By Act of Congress June 20, 1874, in recognition of his heroic exploits in rescuing men, women, and children from drowning in the Detroit River.”

Repeated injuries and sickness from the cold water rescues took their toll on Horn. His health began to deteriorate and he suffered from rheumatism. He claimed to have lost more than $1,000 in clothing from the many rescue attempts. His ferry business failed to compete with bigger and more efficient boats. In 1904 Horn’s gold medal was reported stolen from his home in Detroit. Congress had never authorized a second minting of a gold medal, but they took into account Horn’s condition and his unquestionable contribution to humanity and for the first time a Congressional Gold Medal was recast. Bronze commemorative medals were also cast and are rare items among coin collectors.

John Horn died in Detroit in 1920, and is buried in Woodmere Cemetery. The Detroit Historical Society is proud to have the 1904 recast John Horn Jr. gold medal as well as a bronze commemorative copy in its collection. It was donated in 1945 by Mr. R. H. Larson, a close personal friend. At the request of Mr. Larson, the credit for the donation remains Mr. John Horn Jr. – A.L.

Questionable Ingredients

The first half of the 20th century was a time when popular consensus postulated that modern science could solve the world’s problems and improve living conditions for all. This was before it was found by medical researchers that many of the substances used to execute these solutions caused more harm than good. From asbestos to lead paint, we spent the second half of the 20th century purging our built environment from these now vilified materials.

These images from the Davis Hillmer Collection show some mystifying window displays at the Hudson’s department store, the likes of which you would never see while shopping today. – D.S.

In 1948 it must have seemed like a brilliant idea to lace the wallpaper of children’s’ bedrooms with the toxic pesticide DDT in an effort to “Protect Your Child from Flies, Mosquitoes and Other Household Insects”. This is made all the more ironic by the strategic use of popular animated characters.

This irradiated beauty cream from the 1920s claimed to possess sunlight, apparently before customers were aware that overexposure to the sun causes wrinkles and skin cancer.

Thrift Gardens

Detroit’s current availability of vacant land has made it a popular place for urban farming, but this is not a new phenomenon brought about by abandoned neighborhoods and diminishing population. During the Great Depression, Mayor Frank Murphy suggested a program that would eventually become the Detroit and Wayne County Welfare Relief Administration’s Thrift Garden Project. Started in 1931, it sponsored vegetable gardens for both “families in relief” and “needy borderline families”.

Garden records were kept by a supervisor and field overseer who made note of the condition of gardens.

 

Households applied to be included in the program and could either have a Home Garden in backyards or adjacent vacant lots, or receive a plowed 40 x 100 ft. designated plot in one of the large Field Gardens on donated land about the city. Gardeners were issued commercial fertilizer, tomato and cabbage plants, and seeds for many vegetables including radish, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, kale, squash, turnips, okra, and parsley furnished by the State Emergency Welfare Relief Administration. To assists the gardeners, tools could be borrowed at each field office and stockyard manure was applied to especially deprived fields. Insecticide was also made available and canning demonstrations and supplies were offered. Michigan State College provided informative bulletins to the gardeners.

Fire hydrants were a source of water.

Gardeners were not allowed to sell their produce, and if assigned to a Field Garden, they had to agree to serve occasionally as a night or day watchman to protect against theft. Field overseers were made special officers by the Police Department and given whistles, badges and the authority to make arrests, though few attempts were made to steal produce. The biggest problems were transportation and weather. Many gardeners had to travel long distances to reach a Field Garden using public transit or hitchhiking. Lacking proper irrigation systems, rain and drought hindered production, and in 1932 the corn crop was wiped out by Stewarts’ Wilt.

Election booths were repurposed as tool sheds and for seed storage and shelter.

To promote and publicize the project, educational exhibits were displayed at the Horticultural Society of Michigan’s Fall Show, the Michigan Agricultural and Industrial Exposition, and the Michigan State Fair. Radio broadcasts and lectures in public schools touted the program, and a Spring Festival at the Masonic Temple raised money for the Thrift Gardens.

There were 6,600 gardens including those on more than 20 Field Gardens comprising over 400 acres.

 

 

 

By 1935, the project had expanded to include the whole county, except Dearborn which ran its own program. Surveys showed that everyone enjoyed working their garden and that the average garden value was $35, but some were as much as $100. The Project Commission determined that “Fresh air, sunlight and the visible results of their own work have altered the morale of many gardeners. The mental, physical and social rehabilitation of the individual gardeners is perhaps as important an aspect of the Thrift Garden Project as the financial benefits.”  – D.S.

Restaurant Remembrances

Restaurants come and go, but their images become artifacts of the past, a direct connection with generations gone by who sat at the bar, ate at the tables. These postcards depict some restaurants that operated in the city from the 1950s through the 1980s, which some of our readers may recall patronizing or even working at. They showcase the modernist sensibilities and sometimes outlandish styles that were used to thematically decorate mid-century eating establishments. Please share any personal memories in the Comments section below. – D.S.

The short-lived Windjammer Seafood Restaurant in the late 1960s at 18200 Woodward Avenue, near Palmer Park.

Jim’s Garage Saloon at 300 W. Larned Street from the 1970s to mid-‘80s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darbys at 10020 W. 7 Mile Road near Wyoming Street was in business from the mid-1950s to mid ’60s. “Detroit’s Finest Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge”

Mencotti’s Restaurant at 7113 Puritan Street during the 1960s, with murals of Venice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Little Café German Restaurant at 12601 Gratiot Avenue had an adjoining bowling alley from the 1950s to the ‘80s. “Nationally Known for the Finest in German-American Food”

The Nau’s Sno-White Dining Room at 18944 Grand River was in the Rosedale Park neighborhood from the 1950s to early ‘70s. “Northwest Detroit’s Finest Dining Room and Coffee Shop”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Doors Are Open!

Renovations have been underway for quite some time now; we’ve broken down walls, added a fresh coat of paint and hoisted up a five hundred pound Little Caesars mascot. We share the stories of the people and industries which have shaped our beloved city.

Mr. George Stark and Mrs. Fred Murphy, together ceremoniously break ground at the site of the new Detroit Historical Museum.

But, before we look forward, we look to the past, on July 24, 1949, at the corner of Woodward Avenue, and Kirby Street, ground was broken in preparation for a new building; a museum to display and house the artifacts of Detroit’s rich history. Two years later to the day, to coincide with the city’s 250th anniversary, the beautiful William E. Kapp design was dedicated. Dignitaries, including Governor G. Mennen Williams and Detroit Mayor Albert Cobo, as well as benefactors and contributors were in attendance as the museum was dedicated.

Join us at the corner of Woodward and Kirby, as we continue to share Detroit’s history with you. We will be open for the next 55 1/2 straight hours and admission is free from now on!

You can see more images and artifacts from the Society’s online collections, including more photographs from the dedication and past events. – L.V.

July 24, 1951, Mrs. Fred Murphy speaks at the Dedication of the Museum, Governor G. Mennen Williams looks on.

July 24, 1951, Crowd observes a 1909 Ford Model T on exhibit.

Turkey Day

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving today. If you are attending the Parade, stay warm! And if you are watching football, Go Lions! If you were living in 1891, perhaps you might have enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel Normandie. Some of their menu offering may seem quite exotic, like venison steak, sweet breads, or broiled quail on toast. Other items may be completely foreign to modern diners. New York Counts are a type of oyster, Terrapin is turtle, Oyster Plant is a flowering root vegetable better known as Purple Salsify, Roman Punch is a citrusy palate cleanser like sherbet, and Charlotte Russe is a molded dessert of ladyfingers and custard. Bon Appetit!
- D.S.

The Hotel Normandie stood at the corner of E Congress and Bates Streets, on a site currently occupied by the First National Building. This should not be confused with the current Hotel Normandie on Woodward Avenue near the Highland Park border.

A Painted City

Uniroyal Tire Plant from East Jefferson Avenue (Carol Fink, 1981)

Wall murals and street art in Detroit are drawing international attention these days, as artful graffiti is being more recognized as a legitimate form of expression and urban beautification than as vandalism. But this is no new phenomena to Detroiters. These images from the Documenting Detroit Collection depicted murals from several decades ago. Search our digital collection to find many more. – D.S.

Until recently, Shed 2 at Eastern Market featured large paintings over the entrances, and the munching cow on the Eastern Market Cold Storage Co. has been slightly altered from its origin as a bank advertisement. (G. Edwynn Houk, 1970s)

Corner of Market and Napoleon Streets in Eastern Market. (Jeannette Kuhn)