Detroit's Northland Center

The third shopping mall designed by master architect Victor Gruen -the first one actually actually built- was completed in March 1954.

Drawing from Shopping Centers, Incorporated

The NORTHLAND J.L. Hudson, with 486,200 square feet, would be the largest branch department store ever built in the United States. The original structure was comprised of 4 levels; Lower (or basement), Middle (or Ground), Upper and Roof. With an addition in 1960, the building's size was increased to 537,000 square feet.

The four directionally-designated malls of the Motor City debuted with Southfield's NORTHLAND CENTER, in 1954. EASTLAND CENTER, in Harper Woods, was completed in 1957. Westland's WESTLAND CENTER was third in line, being dedicated in 1965. SOUTHLAND CENTER, in Taylor, opened in 1970. It would be the fourth -and final- "Land" mall project.

Proclaimed a "shopping paradise," NORTHLAND was America's largest shopping center for its first 2 years in business. The open-air mall encompassed over 1 million leasable square feet and housed an initial sixty-seven stores and services. Its sprawling parking area could accommodate 7,500 autos. 

NORTHLAND CENTER TENANTS 1954:

J.L. HUDSON (with The Northland Room restaurant, Piccadilly Circus Cafeteria, Pharmacy, freestanding Garden Center and Tire Center) / S.S. KRESGE 5 & 10 (with luncheonette) / KROGER supermarket / CUNNINGHAM DRUG (with luncheonette) / A.S. Beck Shoes / Albert's ladies' wear / Appearance Shop / Artiste Beauty Salon / Awrey Bakeries / Baker's Shoes / Banner News Agency / Barna-Bee Children's Shop / Better Made Potato Chips / Bloetscher's Meats / Brennan's / Brothers Delicatessen / Center Music Shop / Chandler's Shoes / Community Key Shop / del Gaudio Gifts / Morris Disner & Sons / Dube's Barber Shop / Dunn's Camera & Hobby Center / Elliot Travel Service / Enggass Jewelry Company / Englander Furniture Shops / Fanny Farmer Candies / Father & Son Shoes / Fintex / Fisher Wallpaper & Paint Company / Great Lakes Seafood & Poultry / Nat Green Maternity Modes / Himelhoch's ladies' wear / Hot 'N' Kold Shop electronics & appliances / Household Finance Corporation / Hughes & Hatcher / G.R. Kinney Shoes / Kline's / Thom McAn Shoes / Macauley's / Marianne Shops ladies' wear /  Marwil Book Company / Maskell Flowers, Incorporated / Maxwell's Toys & Records / Northland Portait Studio / Palmer's Sandwich Shop / Peter Pan Snack Shop / Phillip's Red Cross Shoes / Queen Cleaners & Dryers / Raimi's Curtains / Robelle Shops / Robinson Furniture / Sallan Jewelers / Sanders Candy / Schiller's Millinery / Stouffer's restaurant (outparcel) / Suzy Hats / The Cotton Shop ladies' wear / The Detroit Bank / The Detroit Free Press / The Detroit News / United Shirt Distributors / US Post Office / Van Horn's men's wear / Wilbur-Rogers / Wright-Kay Jewelers / Zuieback's Suburban ladies' wear   

A diagram depicting the truck tunnel system at NORTHLAND CENTER. The half-mile-long network had one entrance portal and two exits. It included several office and storage spaces and a Civil Defense fallout shelter.

Drawing from the J.L. Hudson Company  / Shopping Centers, Incorporated

 

A feature page from a Kresge Company annual report highlights the new Kresge store which is "a part of the world's largest shopping center."

Advert from the Kresge Company Annual Report 1954

The main entrance area of the mall consisted of a large open court and city bus stop. A customer pick-up zone for the Hudson's anchor store was on the lower level. The ground level transit terminal above was served by three DSR (Detroit Street Railway) bus routes, one Intertown Suburban Line route and two routes operated by Greyhound.  
Photo from http://gruenassociates.com / Gruen Associates

In this snapshot, we see the Hudson's Northland perfume counter.

Photo from http://gruenassociates.com / Gruen Associates

The Hudson's Northland Millinery Department is seen in this vintage image.

Photo from Architectural Digest / June 1954 / Ben Schnall

This full-page ad appeared in the March 25, 1954 editions of a several Wolverine State newspapers. It thanked the local populace for the warm reception given to the newly-opened NORTHLAND shopping center 3 days earlier.
Advert from the J.L. Hudson Company / Shopping Centers, Incorporated

The NORTHLAND CENTER South Mall. The humongous Hudson's Northland anchor store is seen on the right.

Photo from Architectural Digest / June 1954 / Ben Schnall

Here, we see the Fountain Court. Building B and its Hughes & Hatcher apparel store is on the left.

Photo from Architectural Digest / June 1954 / Ben Schnall

The North Mall and south entrance of  the mall's S.S. Kresge 5 & 10.
Photo from Colourpicture Publishers, Incorporated

Concourses at NORTHLAND CENTER were decorated by several statues. Here we see "Bear & Boy," which was sculpted by Marshall Fredericks.

Photo from Colourpicture Publishers, Incorporated

An 18-acre parcel on the south end of the mall site was developed in the early 1960s. The first Northland Point structure (on the left) was Stouffer's Northland Inn. This 192-room hotel opened in November 1962. Second in line was the Northland Medical Center (lower right). It was dedicated in January 1963. The first building of the Northland Towers (upper center) began leasing office suites in June 1963.

Drawing from the H.L. Vokes Company 

The first -and only- cinematic venue to operate at the mall was built on a pad adjacent to its north parking area. The Northland Theatre welcomed its first patrons in November 1966.
Graphic from Suburban Detroit Theaters, Incorporated 

The NORTHLAND and EASTLAND centers were enclosed and climate-controlled simultaneously. The 50 million dollar dual renovation of the properties commenced in July 1973. Both mall's emerged fully-enclosed in August 1975.
Graphic from the Dayton Hudson Corporation

A view of the mammoth mall soon after it made the change from outdoor to indoor. A new J.C. Penney may be seen in the lower right. This store, which encompassed 284,000 square feet, was one of the largest in the chain, then based in New York City.
Photo from Malls of America Blogspot

A circa-'75 site plan shows original store block designations in green. The circa-1954 mall encompassed Building A through F.  Buildings G and H were added in the early '60s, with Building I completed in 1969. By the time of the 1970s enclosure (in medium gray), these designations were becoming redundant.

    

An aerial view from the mid-1970s shows the sheer size of the sprawling shopopolis. It covered approximately 1.5 million leasable square feet and contained 168 stores and services beneath its roof. 

Photo from Library of Congress / Balthazar Korab Studios, Limited

By 1996, the bus stop area at the front of the mall has been filled with inline stores (medium gray). A MainStreet store opened in 1988, morphed into Kohl's (1989) and then Jeepers (1994). Montgomery Ward reconfigured existing space, with their store also opening in 1994. At the time of this plan, Target has just dedicated a store on the mall's southwest corner.

The mall entrance of the aforementioned Target. Encompassing 116,000 square feet, it welcomed first shoppers in March of 1996.
Photo from www.shopatnorthland.com

A snapshot showing Hudson's just before it was refitted with a Marshall Field's nameplate, in August 2001. The store was rebranded as a Macy's in September 2006.
Photo from http://www.history.sandiego.edu

NORTHLAND CENTER turned 60 in March 2014. After all of its years in business, it still held the distinction of largest shopping center in The Wolverine State. The complex covered approximately 1,680,000 leasable square feet and housed 150 store spaces.
Photo from http://www.history.sandiego.edu

NORTHLAND, circa-2014. The closings of Target and Macy's, in 2015, would leave the mall anchor-less. Nearly 50-percent vacant, the entirety of NORTHLAND CENTER  was shuttered in April 2015, ending over half a century of commerce.

When NORTHLAND was enclosed in the 1970s, the "Bear & Boy" statue seen above was moved inside. It was relocated to the Southfield Public Library in May 2016.
Photo from www.shopatnorthland.com

A vacant NORTHLAND MALL was sold to Michigan's Contour Companies in 2017. They got the proverbial ball rolling and broke ground on the NORTHLAND CITY CENTER project in October 2021. This unique mall repurpose is rebuilding the circa-1954 structures, using their original Mid-Century Modern design aesthetic. Notice the vintage NORTHLAND CENTER signage above.

Drawing from Contour Companies   

NORTHLAND CITY CENTER will incorporate retail, entertainment, office and residential components. The 403 million dollar mall redevelopment will be comprised of 1,500 apartment units, 254 loft-type apartments, two blocks of townhomes and around 674,900 square feet of commercial space.

Drawing from Contour Companies 

NORTHLAND CENTER
Northwestern Highway and 8 Mile Road
Oakland County (Southfield), Michigan

The third mall-type center designed by architect Victor Gruen was the first that was actually built. NORTHLAND CENTER was situated on a 163-acre tract, located 10 miles northwest of center city Detroit, in an unincorporated section of Oakland County known as Southfield Township. Ground was broken on May 7, 1952.

When completed, the complex was a sprawling, 1,040,200 square foot, open-air structure. It encompassed 2 levels. The ground floor was devoted entirely to retail. A basement included lower levels for the larger stores, two subterranean shopping concourses, storage areas, mall offices, a US Post Office, Community Room and truck tunnel network. During the mall's early years, the basement was also maintained as a fallout shelter.

A 4-level (486,200 square foot) J.L. Hudson, the first suburban location in the Detroit-based chain, was situated in the center of the cluster-type mall. This store was surrounded by five retail blocks and seven open court areas. All enclosed structures were air-conditioned and there were twelve escalators. Court areas featured fountains and over 8,000 trees, shrubs and flowering plants. Prerecorded music could be heard over a system of loudspeakers.

Thirteen sculptures had been designed by six artisans. These works included "Water Mobile" and "Fish Group" (Richard Hall Jennings), "Turtle" and "Cat & Canary" (Arthur Kraft), "Baby Elephant" and "Giraffe Family" (Malcolm Moran), "Birds of Flight" (Gwen Lux), "Noah" (Lily Saarinen) and "Bear & Boy" (Marshall Fredericks). 

The 30 million dollar shopping venue officially opened for business on March 22, 1954, with sixty-seven stores and services. Within months, a total of eighty-one were in operation. At the time of the mall's completion, its 7,500 car parking area was the largest in the world. It was divided into ten lots designated as A through J.

In keeping with the 1950s concept of a regional retail center, the mall was a one-stop shopping destination. In its original configuration, NORTHLAND CENTER included ten dress shops, seven shoe stores, three millinery shops, three jewelry shops, four home furnishing & appliance stores, five men's & boy's shops and four restaurants, as well as a bank, 5 & 10, supermarket, garden supply store, medical clinic, record store, drug store, beauty parlor, lost children office and 300-seat Community Room. The mall even had its own fire department.

Charter tenants included Hughes & Hatcher men's wear, Winkelman's and Himelhoch's ladies' wear, Barna-bee Children's Shops, Robinson Furniture, Baker's Shoes, Chandler's Shoes, Sanders Candy, the Hot 'N' Kold Shop (home appliances & electronics), a Kroger supermarket and S.S. Kresge 5 & 10.

The area surrounding -and including- the shopping center was incorporated, as the City of Southfield, in April 1958. Vehicular access was improved in 1962, when the James Couzens (later John C. Lodge) Expressway was extended from Detroit's Wyoming Avenue to 8 Mile Road.

By this time, other shopping malls were being developed in the NORTHLAND trade area. These included  LIVONIA MALL (1964-2009) {6.8 miles southwest, in Livonia}), WESTLAND CENTER (1965) {11.9 miles southwest, in Westland}and TEL-TWELVE MALL (1968-2001) {4.7 miles northwest, also in Southfield}.

As a result, NORTHLAND CENTER had been expanded. Hudson's added a 5th floor in 1960, with the store enlarged to 537,000 square feet. The Building G and Building H blocks, on the south end of the complex, were completed in the early '60s, adding stores such as Tall Eez Shoes and Best & Company. Stores in Building I, on the mall's north end, began opening in the fall of 1969. These included G.Q. Modern Shoppe, Barclay Gallery Limited and B. Dalton Bookseller. 

The first -and only- motion picture venue to operate at the mall was built adjacent to its north parking area. The Suburban Detroit Theaters, Incorporated Northland Theatre debuted on November 17, 1966. The cinema was twinned in November 1976 and came under the American Multi-Cinema brand in June 1986. It was shuttered in January 1990 and re-opened as Millenium Center -a Bollywood and live-performance venue- in April 2000. 

Meanwhile, a mall-wide NORTHLAND renovation was done between July 1973 and August 1975. A 2-level (284,000 square foot) J.C. Penney was built on the northeast corner. The store opened its doors, in unison with a brand new EASTLAND location, on May 21, 1975. The second phase of the 25 million dollar remodeling enclosed the mall. NORTHLAND CENTER re-opened, as a fully-enclosed shopping facility, on August 3, 1975. With its twenty-one store expansion, it now encompassed approximately 1.5 million leasable square feet and featured 102 stores and services.

A bus stop area at the front of the shopping hub was filled with a new block of inline stores in 1980-1981. By the mid-1980s, several major tenants had vacated, including S.S. Kresge, Jo-Ann Fabrics and The Limited. Illinois-based MainStreet joined the tenant list on March 12, 1988. This 1-level (61,000 square foot) store would be rebranded by Wisconsin-based Kohl's on March 19, 1989.

A new decade brought a 7 million dollar indoor-outdoor face lift. New lighting, ceilings, flooring and skylights were installed. An 8-bay Food Court was created in existing mall space. The culinary complex opened in November 1991.

Montgomery Ward gutted store space in two northwest blocks, creating a 2-level (118,400 square foot) store. This opened for business on November 19, 1994. A (40,300 square foot) T.J. Maxx had welcomed first shoppers on November 10th. The openings of these new stores was followed by the shuttering of another. Kohl's pulled out of the mall in 1995. A 1-level (116,000 square foot) Target made its debut on March 10, 1996. Montgomery Ward closed its "underperforming" store in early 1998. 

 

The mall changed hands in the year 2000; its new owner being Jager Management, Incorporated of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. J.C. Penney shuttered their NORTHLAND store in June of the year same year. The vacant Montgomery Ward was leased to National Wholesale Liquidators, who opened in October 2004 but closed in November 2008. Hudson's was rebranded as Marshall Field's in August 2001 and morphed into a Macy's in September 2006.

By this time, the 1,680,000 square foot NORTHLAND CENTER was struggling. New York City's Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation acquired the complex in December 2008 and hired Chicago's Jones Lang Lasalle as its manager. In late 2014, Ashkenazy defaulted on their 31 million dollar loan, sending the property into receivership. 3 million dollars were also owed in back taxes and utility bills. An estimated 6 million dollars were needed to complete various repairs. 

 

In February 2015, an Oakland County judge approved plans to vacate and shutter the historic shopping hub. It closed on April 10, 2015. The shuttering of the NORTHLAND CENTER Target, on February 1, 2015, had left the massive mall with just one anchor to sustain it. Cincinnati's Macy's Inc. announced that this store would also be closing. This transpired on March 23, 2015, leaving the shopping hub anchor-less.

Between the mid-1990s and early 21st century, ownership of NORTHLAND CENTER had changed four times. The fourth transaction, which closed in October 2015, transferred the deed of the shuttered shopping center to the City of Southfield. Demolition of the Target and Firestone buildings commenced in October 2017. IMAGINE NORTHLAND, a redevelopment plan for the remainder of the mall, was drawn up but eventually abandoned. 

In July 2021, Contour Companies, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, acquired the mall. Bruce Kopytek, Chief Architect, would oversee its redevelopment as NORTHLAND CITY CENTER. Under this plan, the original anchor store would be restored and reconfigured as the Hudson City Market. 

This facility would include a food hall, entertainment venues, home furnishings mart and leased office spaces. The inline store sections of the original mall would be repurposed as 254 loft apartments. The J.C. Penney and Main Street-Kohl's structures, added to NORTHLAND CENTER in the 1970s and '80s, would be demolished.

Multi-story buildings, containing apartments, town homes and street-level retail, would be built, with patches of greenspace and parking facilities also created. Old and new structures would incorporate the Mid-Century Modern architecture used for the original 1954 mall. Ground was broken for Phase One on October 7, 2021. It is projected that Phases One and Two will be complete by 2027.   

  

Sources:

The Detroit Free Press

The Milwaukee Journal

The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Michigan)

The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario)

The Birmingham Eccentric (Birmingham, Michigan)

"Shopping Centers: Locating Controlled Regional Centers" Eugene J. Kelley -1956

"Dual Anchor Shopping Centers 1952-1965" / Richard Longstreth

http://www.michiganhighways.org

https://cinematreasures.org

Northland Center Leasing Plan / GP Northland Center, LLC

"Images of Modern America-Northland Mall" / Gerald E. Naftaly

http://www.shopatnorthland.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)

http://www.aacrealty.com / Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation

http://www.crainsdetroit.com

http://www.imaginenorthland.com

http://www.michigansthumb.com

https://www.contourcompanies.com 

https://apnews.com

https://www.northlandcitycenter.com