Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com

70 | APRIL 11 • 2024 
J
N

The Legacy of Gardner-White
I

f you have lived in Metro Detroit for a 
few years, unless you have never read 
a newspaper or received mail at your 
home or have never watched TV or listened 
to the radio or recently attended Detroit’s 
Thanksgiving Day Parade, then it might be 
possible that you’ve never heard of Gardner-
White Furniture. Possible … but highly 
unlikely. 
Gardner-White is 
Michigan’s leading furniture 
store, founded by Eugene 
Clinton White and John G. 
Gardner in 1912. Irwin Kahn 
bought the company’s one 
store in the 1950s. Currently, 
Gardner-White has 14 stores 
in the state and employs 
more than 1,000 Michiganders. It has also 
sponsored the nationally acclaimed Detroit 
Thanksgiving Day Parade since 2020. 

It was recently announced that Rachel 
Tronstein Stewart, president of GW
, will 
assume the role of CEO from her parents, 
Barbara and Steven Tronstein. She represents 
the fourth generation of family leadership: 
Irwin Kahn was her maternal grandfather.
There are only a few 100-year-old busi-
nesses in Michigan, let alone companies led 
by the fourth generation of family, let alone 
companies led by women. So, I thought 
I should dive into the William Davidson 
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 
and see what it might hold about Gardner-
White Furniture.
 The first mention of Gardner-White in 
the Archive can be found in the March 7, 
1924, Detroit Jewish Chronicle. An article 
about the upcoming “Better Homes Show” 
in Detroit cites E.C. White of Gardner-White 
Company as a member of the Detroit Retail 
Furniture Association, which was sponsor-
ing the “Better Homes Show.
” 
The company’s first retail advertise-
ment was in the Sept. 18, 1924, issue of the 
Chronicle as one of the places that would 
provide you with a new Maytag washer 
(with wringer) for a free trial in your home. 

Gardner-White also placed an ad in the first 
issue of the JN (March 27, 1942).
After reading about Gardner-White 
in the Archive, it is also readily apparent 
that the company not only sold furniture 
to Metro Detroiters, it also contributed to 
numerous Jewish and non-Jewish charitable 
endeavors over the last hundred years. It 
could be argued that presenting the Detroit 
Thanksgiving Parade, which brings so much 
joy to so many viewers in the city and across 
America, the city’s most visible annual event, 
is, perhaps, Gardner-White’s largest philan-
thropic enterprise. 
Stewart joined Gardner-White after 
working in the clean energy field, including 
a stint working with Nobel Prize-winning 
physicist Steven Chu at the U.S. Department 
of Energy. At Gardner-White since 2012, she 
has been known as a highly successful and 
innovative business leader.
New Gardner-White CEO Stewart is not 
only a prominent corporate leader in Metro 
Detroit, she has also continued the compa-
ny and family tradition of civic leadership. 
I especially enjoyed the cover story about 
her in the July 5, 2018, JN. It was published 
on the occasion of Stewart becoming the 
first woman to chair New Detroit Inc., an 
important civic group formed in the after-
math of the 1967 civil unrest. This was and 
still is a prestigious position. Jewish chairs 
before her included Max Fisher, Stanley 
Winkelman and Alan E. Schwartz.
Maybe I should have 
written about Stewart for 
Women’s History Month 
in March. Then again, why 
not celebrate successful 
women whenever they make 
some cracks in the glass 
ceiling. So, here’s to Rachel 
Stewart on her promotion — 
Mazel tov! 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN 
archives, available for free at the-
jewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

