J.L. Hudson's
After already having had a successful Hudson's men & boys' clothing store in Detroit and the Hudson Motor Company, Joseph L. Hudson opened his department store on Woodward in 1911. Tragically, he would never know the degree of its success. The next year, in 1912, he died from pneumonia that he contracted while visiting England. He had no children, so the business passed to his four Webber nephews. They were up to the task, and they made Hudson's a resounding success.
In 1963, Hudson's great-nephew, J.L. Hudson Jr. took over the reins, but by the mid-1960's downtown Detroit had begun to change in ways that were not good for Hudson's. A store clerk was murdered in the store in 1966, and the Detroit riots occurred downtown in 1967. People became afraid to go downtown to shop, and Hudson's sales began to suffer. The store tried to compensate by closing departments and reducing services, but people's shopping habits had changed and were not quick to change back. In 1983, Hudson's closed its downtown Detroit store.
Recipes on my site:
I used to have individual links to these recipes on another website, but that site has gone kaput. Luckily, I had saved the recipes themselves, so here they are. I have lttle provenance for them other than that at least two of them are attributed to Gloria Pitzer. With no evidence that they came from JL Hudson's or from a former employee of Hudson's, I think it's reasonable to assume that they are all copycats.
No Luck:
- Brownies
- Burger with Stroganoff Sauce
- Cheesecake
- Chicken Americana Sandwich
- Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Chocolate Layer Cake
- Date Nut Bread
- Egg Salad
- Orange Cake
- Pecan Muffin Roll, Mezzanine Restaurant
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Tiramisu
