"The history of the Steketee organization parallels the history of Grand Rapids and Western Michigan. As the community grew, so this store has grown. For as the community increased in population and purchasing power, and consequently demanded larger and better selections of merchandise, the store responded with larger and better selections, enlarging its facilities from time to time to make room. The present arrangements are the result of constant effort on the part of the management to find out what best pleases the public and to give he public what it desires. The arrangement has been mutually beneficial to public and store".

J. H. Doornink established a store at Division and and Monroe. In 1862 he offered a partnership to Paul G. Steketee and the firm became Doornink and Steketee's.

Later occupied by Heystek & Canfield ?about 1910? (then Porter Block, Herp's, Police Dept
1 Division Av N)

 In 1864 a store was opened in Holland and Paul's brother George was taken in as a third partner.

Then the Grand Rapids store moved to a 20-ft-front building with 850 square feet at what would be later identified as  96 Monroe Ave NW old 67(Peck's Drug Store?). This property was kept by George Steketee as his interest when he dropped out of the partnership.

After a few years it was moved to the southeast corner of Monroe and Ionia Ave occupied by the Home State Bank in 1922. (later People's Bank Bldg?). This was opposite the Catholic Church. (the first St. Andrew's?) whose location was used in their advertisements.

On this map shows the Catholic Church on the west side of Monroe Avenue at the corner of Justice renamed Ottawa.
National Hotel later became the Morton House at the corner of Greenwich renamed Ionia.

 Mr Doornink retired and sold his interest in 1872. Mr. Steketee added his sons John P and Peter P in 1878 becoming Paul Steketee and Sons.  Son Don and son-in-law C. Dosker were also involved in the business. They soon built a new building on Fountain Street between Ionia and Ottawa Avenues. The Monroe side was retail while the rest of the building and upper floors was wholesale.

Paul Steketee sold the Grand Rapids store to Kellogg & Bunn concentrating on the Holland Store. . Then in 1878, after a four- year absence, Paul Steketee  re-entered the Grand Rapids with a new store, mostly wholesale, at 100 Monroe Ave where
Central Bank is now (1937) located. (c.1953 SW corner Ionia and Monroe,

                                                                 .

By 1885, larger quarters were needed so he purchased a small frontage on Monroe and a larger connecting one on Fountain street between Ionia and Ottawa, where a part of the present store is located. On these two lots, he constructed connecting buildings, a small one on Monroe for the retail trade and a larger three-story on on Fountain for the wholesale see Bldg # 3 below.

By 1899, when Paul Steketee died, the concern purchased two adjacent small stores fronting on Monroe

and built a new store  

 This building was replaced in 1916 . See Bldg #2 below

At the same time they acquired the entire corner at Fountain and Ionia

In 1906, a modern four-story bldg was constructed at the corner of Fountain and Ionia, hereinafter called the Ionia Avenue building which became the wholesale operation. See Bldg #4 below.In 1913  a forth floor was added. .
Unfortunately, there was no assessor's card for this building. (Check the 1912 City Directory) 

In 1920 two additional stores on Monroe were purchased and remodeled into the Men's Store. In 1940, a new addition to the 1916 building replaced these stores. See Bldg #1 below.

In 1931, the wholesale operation was discotinued.

In the 1970's it phased out carpeting, furniture, piece goods, sewing goods, then china, gifts and housewares.
It became just a clothing store. 

And after 100 years, Steketee's is out of business. The baby boomers have succeeded in changing the world.
Their mantra: Be selfish. Buy cheap. Put your neighbor out of work.

The above information comes mostly from the vertical file (unreferenced clippings of local newspapers or pamphlets) of the Grand Rapids Public Library, direct quotes, some unmarked, or inferred. .

This is the Steketee's I remember when I was a little girl supplemented by the Assessor's records, City Engineer's, Sanborn Fire maps and the Grand Rapids Public Library's vertical file.

This shows the location of Steketee's. You can see the vague blue outline that shows it covered almost all of lot 2 of block 10 of Louis Campau's Village of Grand Rapids or more commonly known as the Campau Plat.

Campau Plat as drawn in 1836.showing the original street names. City Street Names.
H for the location of Herpolsheimers. S for the location of Steketee's., W for the location of Wurzburg's.

My Steketee's covered four buildings: #1 built about 1940, #2 1916, #3 about 1880, #4 1906. #2 was beautiful.
#3 very old with uneven wood floors, it appeared low and dim. #3 I rarely entered, #4 was office-like.

   City Assessor           Sanborn Map c. 1954

I entered the City Assessor's building numbers on the Sanborn Map                      

Building #3 is actually the oldest. It was built about 1880. 36-40 Fountain St NW. 4 stories

                                              Sanborn

   GRP 1895                               Assessor shows two pent., some sort of penthouse probably mechanical not residential.

The Sanborn map has been inverted to match the Assessor's records. Sanborn was always drawn with North to the top but not the Assessor's records. The lot addresses 34, 36, 38, 40 Fountain St NW.

Originally this building held  the wholesale business

 I was fascinated by the freight elevator that came up out of the sidewalk. Merchandize was delivered to the store through this elevator out of trucks that were double-parked. The building on the right was Union Bank. It had bright red brick. The building to the left was Building #4. It was more of a brownish-yellow.

Assessor's records show it was a solid brick building, pitch and gravel roof, 79 by 86 feet, 6690 square feet per floor, four floors. 4 stories, solid brick and mill. Foundation - brick, full basement, 8 foot hair used for retail selling. Floor - hardwood. Walls and ceilings plastered. Heat steam. No toilets or lavs in this building. Roof -tar and gravel on wood

If this is Building A in the Historic Preservation Commission records, the basement is 4 1/2 feet shallower than buildings
1 and 2 (C and D), it has columns holding up the ceiling and is not handicap accessible. This would explain why the marble stairway in the 1916 building led away along a ramp surrounded by black curtains as it wound around to Bldg 4 (B) where the
yard goods were sold. Building A is a 4-story building.. Buildings C and D face Monroe Ave. Building C has eight floors.

The Sanborn Map does not give the year built but indicates iron columns.

I remember a reference can't find it offhand that said a fourth floor was later added to this building.

Building #2 - 86 Monroe Ave NW built around 1916. 8 stories

   close-up of the front  Between Fanny Farmer and the Morton House.

  Revised after further reading about Bldg 1:  Sanborn

Sanborn shows the location of the elevators on upward stairs. It states that there is a water tank on the roof.
Fireproof construction, steel frame, fire escape to attic, built 1917. The lot addresses 88-94 Monroe Ave Nw.

Designed by Robinson and Campau. steel frame and reinforced concrete floors, gray buff terracotta facing.

I have drawn from my memory the locations of the escalator that only went up three floors, not down.
On the third floor was ladies apparel. There was a very large ladies lounge that led into a good size bathroom.
The ladies beauty salon was next store. I always got my hair cut in the "barber shop" that had wood walls that didn't
quite reach the floor or ceiling. Mr. Adams and Mr. Cox were the barbers. They always put a hot towel on my face and
sprayed something (witchhazel?) on my hair. None of that stinky ladies perfume.

The elevators had glass doors and I tried to hard to watch them go up and there was a big black cable that hung underneath. I don't think they went down, only up. They had an elevator operator.

There were open white marble-like stairs that led to the basement. You had to walk along some winding hallway that wasn't level that led to the back building where they sold fabric.

  Solid brick,, terra cotta trim, coping-marble, copper set, tile floor in the vestibule, 7130 sq. ft per floor, 8 stories, 8 stoires, steel and concrete, terra cotta tile on front, brick sides. Foundation - concrete, full basement 12 foot high, floors - hardwood on concrete including basement, Walls and ceilings plastered throughout. Heat - steam. 2 baths with 1 toilet, 1 urinal, 1 lav tiled walls and floors. 6 baths with 2 toilets and 1 lab, tiled walls and floors. 4 passenger elevators. Sprinkler system on all floors. 2 sets of steel stairs and 1 enclosed. Tar and gravel roof on concrete.            

In 1956 air conditioning was installed. In 1957 new escalators installed.

In 1961  automatic elevators were installed. No more glass doors or human operators.                  

Building #1 -4 stories

         Sanborn

Sanborn shows  protected steel frame, concrete floors and roof, steel joist construction, no year of construction, it shows a backroom connection to the Ionia/Fountain building. The lot addresses 82, 84, 86 Monroe Ave NW.

This was the men's department. There was a wide open curving stairway that led upstairs. I think that was where the accounting department was where they kept all the money. I have a vague memory of money being sent up there by cashiers.

There was an open stairway beyond the elevators that went upstairs. I wonder if this was an added extra partial floor, a mezzadine?

           70 x 70 and lots of small  measurements indicating it was an irregular shape.    
4 stories, steel and concrete, terra cotta tile in front, common brick on the side (connected to bldg 2 to form one long building. floors -hardwood on concrete. Walls and ceilings are plastered throughout, most 12 foot high, some 15 foot high. heat is steam. No toilet or lavatories in this building. Sprinkler system on all floors. Roofing in tar and gravel on concrete.

Two adjoining properties were purchased in 1920. The original three-story building was replaced about 1940 by a new 40-foot-front building designed by Robison, Campau and Crowe to match the 1916 building. It was to have a full basement. The basement was to be the boys' wear department, the first floor men's wear, the second floor girls' wear  and the fourth floor was the ladies lounge and beauty salon.

You entered this area from the side of the escalators. To the left was the ladies lounge that you entered through a swinging door to a large plush sitting room before entering the bathroom proper. Heading straight  was the barber shop.
It was a wooden-wall with vertical "floorboards" that didn't reach the ceiling or the floor. There were two barbers: Mr. Cox and Mr. Adams. I loved getting my hair cut by them, fast no-nonscence, clip, clip, clip, exactly the way your hair wanted to go. They wrapped a warm towel over my face and sprayed my hair with something that smelled so nice, witchhazel? To the right was the beauty parlor that stunk. I hated it. I hated the female operators who fussed, fussed, fussed with your hair forever forcing it to go in the latest style whether it suited you or not.

I remember entering the men's department only as  a young child when shopping with my mother to buy my dad a Christmas present. I remember making the poor salesman remove every pair of boxer shorts from the glass case and picked out a a grey pair with pink bunny rabbits. What company selected that print and why?

If this building was designed as an extension of the 1916 building, why was it's third floor the fourth floor of the new building?

No property card for this building.             

Building #4 - 6 stories

Sanborn

Sanborn shows built 1907, fireproof construction. Lot addresses 26, 28, 30, 32 Fountain St NW and 91, 95 Ionia Ave NW.

The entrance was at the corner of Ionia and Fountain. It did not have the appearance of a store but more like an office building.
In 1906 the entire corner was purchased. Apparently it was an extension of a previous purchase that contained the wholesale business. .

There was no photo of this building  in the assessor's file for Steketees. A little bit is shown in the assessor's photo of Bldg #3.

Has this building  been separated and now stands alone so it has it's own file?

If this is building B in the Historic Preservation Commission report it is a brick structure with limestone detailing at it's base. The arches are similar to the Union Bank Bldg with brick detailing occurring the upper areas of both buildings.

Steketee's had Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse at Christmas.
Mrs. Stewart worked there one year as a helper. She was drunk.

I have tried to impact every source with corrections or comments so everything on this site is copywrited. The information may be used for your project but the source must be cited.

From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids

From web site:  MyCityofGrandRapids.info