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Northland Memories

Naftaly pens book about shopping mall that evoked good times for many.

COLOR PHOTOS BY AARON TOBIN

Esther Allweiss Ingber | Contributing Writer

A historic photo showing the pageantry of
the circus, which would come to the mall

In 1957, cranes help erect the geodesic
dome that would later house a teen club.

Author and former Oak Park mayor Gerald Naftaly with copies of his new book about Northland Mall

W

ith the January 2015
announcement that Macy’s
department store would be
closing at Northland, former Oak Park
Mayor Gerald “Jerry” Naftaly saw the writ-
ing on the wall for the struggling shopping
mall in Southfield.
Macy’s, successor to Marshall Field and
Hudson’s, was the mall’s last remaining
anchor.
“I knew someone had to preserve memo-
ries of the place,” said Naftaly, who served
20 years as mayor starting in 1991 and
served on the city council from 1977-1991.
A history buff, Naftaly decided that he
should be that “someone.” He’d already
proven his mettle by writing Images of
America: Oak Park for Arcadia Publishing,

now in its fourth printing.
Naftaly’s new book, Images of Modern
America: Northland, tells the story of a
delightful space to shop, work and hang
out.
Since the mall’s opening in 1954, teenage
girls have flocked to stores like Marianne,
Albert’s and Baker’s to find cute clothes
and shoes on 50-cent-an-hour babysitting
pay. Lunch with girlfriends might consist
of a tuna salad sandwich and hot fudge
creampuff at Sanders, a Kresge submarine
sandwich or a Hudson’s Maurice salad with
its sweet pickles.

MALL’S BEGINNINGS
Northland started on a 180-acre site with
7,500 parking spaces. It was located north

of the Greenfield-Eight Mile Detroit city
limits. Lawrence Tech, not yet a university,
purchased the original Clinton family farm-
land in the late 1940s, later selling to the
Hudson-Webber family for Northland.
Victor Gruen, a Viennese Jew, was
Northland’s chief architect. His innova-
tive open-air, suburban shopping center,
constructed for $30 million, was admired
for its beautiful landscaping, fountains and
sculptures.
Suburbanites visiting the center liked
the convenient, self-contained shop-
ping. Northland in its heyday was a small
city, offering scores of retailers and ser-
vices, including longtime optometrist Dr.
Benjamin H. Stein.
The Northland run lasted 61 years. In

Dr. Benjamin H. Stein’s optometry office in
the mall

April 2015, the city of Southfield purchased
the property out of receivership for $2.4
million. One reason the mall couldn’t hang
on was because better shopping options
emerged.
Naftaly’s research began with calling
attorney John Polderman, court-appointed
to oversee the mall’s dissolution.
With Polderman’s authorization, mall
manager Miles McFee allowed Naftaly to
tour Northland in March 2015.
Naftaly gained “a better sense of the place
and its history” as Southfield police escorts
introduced him to tenants of shuttered
stores preparing to relocate.
He joined a group visit a week later.
Sheryl Goldstein Young of Commerce
attracted eight participants via a Northland

continued on page 12

10 August 4 • 2016