Herpolsheimer's Department Store
William G. Herpolsheimer came to Grand Rapids to be a partner with Mr. Voight (of Voight house on College Ave). They opened a dry goods store together on 1 Sept 1870. Later Mr. Herpolsheimer decided to start his own store. He acquired the empty lot at the NW corner of Ottawa and Monroe where the Luce Building had burned in 1902. (The Luce Bldg is where Central's first graduation was held in 1862). He built a new building there. In 1911 a 10-story addition was added.
This postcard view shows Herpolsheimers at the corner of Ottawa looking NW down Monroe toward the Pantlind Hotel. Postmarked 1910.
The original Herpolsheimer's on Monroe and Ottawa with the name shown on the
addition.
This building in the foreground would become Central Bank and be covered in Art
Deco black panels
In 1928 the store was sold to Hahn Dept Stores later called Allied.
After Herpolsheimer's relocated in 1948, this building was sold to Wurzburg's. It has now been replaced by a new art museum.
In 1948 a new store was built at the corner of Division, Monroe and Fulton
replacing the Porter Block and the vacated Commerce ST NW. It shows
a corner of the Gilbert building beyond.
These two views are from the same direction, Fulton to the left, Monroe to the right, Division is the cross-bar
The old
The new
We shopped in this store when I was a kid. You entered into a big wide glassed-in lobby off Division.
Just ahead was the counter where ladies' hose was sold. Alice Hall, her nick name was Pete, sold the hose. Each pair was wrapped in tissue paper in a cardboard box. Pete would pull a stocking out and put her hand in it so you could see the color. Some hose was silk, some cotton, some nylon.
There was a lunch counter room off to the left. That's where we ate.
Farther back was a double escalator that went right up to the posh Kent Room. That's where the rich ladies ate. We never ate there.
We'd go down to the basement where there was a walled-in take-out snack counter that served chocolate-malt ice cream cones!
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The Christmas train
At Christmas time there was a little train that hung from the ceiling and went around in a circle above Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph would kick his leg and a present would slide down a chute and his red nose would light up. I only rode the train once. It was really jerky but fun.
Just south of this store on Division and Fulton was the Cody Hotel so of course I thought Buffalo Bill Cody owned it. It was torn down for a parking ramp which was just torn down for some new skid row art center.
The Gilbert building was at the corner of Commerce and Monroe. The new
Herpolsheimers would be built right up next to it. When I was a child, it was
Ganto's Dress Shop. After the freeway went through and destroyed central Grand
Rapids, an attempt was made to save downtown. When Herp's became Lazurus, the
building was combined with the Gilbert Building to form an enclosed mall with a
basement food arcade. Many of the retailers left their stores on Monroe and
Ottawa and moved in. A new parking ramp was built where the Cody Hotel used to
be with an enclosed walkway. It failed. Now the parking ramp is gone and the
mall is now the Grand Rapids Police Department.
From article Down Retail
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info