Kern's
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| Kern's | |
|---|---|
| Type | Department store |
| Founded | 1883 |
| Headquarters | Detroit, Michigan |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | men's, women's and children's clothing, footwear, jewelry, beauty products, bedding, housewares and home furnishings. |
Kern's or the The Ernst Kern Dry Good Company was established in Detroit in 1883. Kern's was one of Detroit's leading department stores. In 1886, the original store was consumed by fire and was rebuilt at Randolph and Monroe. In 1900, the Kern's purchased a five story building at Woodward and Gratiot to accommodate increasing business. After World War I, additional space was once again needed for expansion, and the department store acquired the adjoining nine story Weber Building. In 1929, the store was demolished and a new store was erected. In 1957 the family decided to sell Ernst Kern Co., Detroit’s Third largest department store, to Sattler’s Inc. of Buffalo, New York. Following numerous corporate problems and changes in management, the store closed its doors for the final time on December 23, 1959.
The block was torn down in 1962, along with Detroit's old city hall, and the paradise building across the street as part of Detroit's downtown urban renewal. The site remained an undeveloped park until 1999 when the Campus Martius Park project began development. The former site of Kern's is now occupied by the corporate headquarters of Compuware. Although the store may be gone, the beloved Kern's clock has been reinstalled at the corner of Woodward and Gratiot Avenues in downtown Detroit.
[edit] Competitors
[edit] References
- Marquis, Albert Nelson. The Book of Detroiters: A Bibliographical Dictionary of Leading Men of the City of Detroit. Chicago: A.N. Marquis, 1908
- Service And Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class by Jan Whitaker, page 28
- Dreaming Suburbia: Detroit and the Production of Postwar Space and Culture by Amy Maria Kenyon, page 128
