J.L. Hudsons Department Store
"Nearly 7,000 are regularly employed in Hudson's Downtown
Store, with another 3,000 joining the ranks during the Christmas
season.
The Downtown Store rises 25 stories above the street, including
the tower, and four stories beneath it. 17 of these floors are
devoted to merchandise and customer service.
There are 51 passenger elevators, four series of escalators, 705
private fitting rooms, five public restaurants and an employee
cafeteria.
Our telephone rings on one of the world's largest private
switchboards, handling up to 32,000 calls a day.
The Downtown Store has fur storage vaults for more than 55,000
garments; has 18 public entrances on street level; 51 large
display windows and 50 small display windows.
The electrical system in the Downtown Store is comparable to that
of the City of Ypsilanti.
The Downtown Store is headquarters for Hudson's Bridal Registry
which enters ten thousand brides a year.
Since 1928, air conditioning facilities have been gradually
enlarged so that they now take in every floor from the fourth
basement up. The combined system is one of the largest in the
world." (From "The Hudsonian" by The J.L.
Hudson Company, 1969)
(Editor's Note, July 2002: The photos were on a server which long since disappeared. An effort will be made to resurrect some images in the future.)
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