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