Crowley's - History

History

In 1909, Joseph J. Crowley, his brothers William and Daniel, and William L. Milner joined to save the Detroit-based store of Pardridge & Blackwell that was struggling financially. Joseph Crowley previously worked as a credit manager for the Detroit wholesale firm of Burnham Stoepel and had great experience reorganizing struggling ventures. He and his brothers opened the Crowley Brothers Wholesale Dry Goods Company in 1902. William Milner was a regular customer of the Crowley Brothers through his W.L. Milner Department Store of Toledo, Ohio.

Pardridge & Blackwell formed in 1901 and was on the edge of insolvency due to poor management and the recession of 1907. The opportunity to assume control of the retailer came when an executive of the Central Savings Bank of Detroit, one of the store’s creditors, approached Joseph Crowley. Crowley agreed on the condition that his two brothers and Milner join him and Crowley, Milner and Company was born.

Immediately after the incorporation of Crowley, Milner and Co., its owners envisioned the store as one of the highest quality retail operations in Detroit. At the turn of the twentieth century, Detroit was regarded as one of the most affluent cities in the United States, and Crowley, Milner & Co. helped to uphold this image. The owners stocked the store with luxurious clothing and gifts imported from Europe and opened a full-service restaurant and grocery store. Within ten years, the Crowley, Milner & Co. expanded its building and was the largest department store in Michigan.

The Pardridge & Blackwell Building occupied the western half of the block bounded by Farmer Street, Gratiot Avenue, Library and Monroe Streets. It contained six floors with large triple windows on the second through fourth floors divided by piers faced with white glazed brick and terra cotta. The piers formed arches above the windows of the fifth floor with windows on the sixth floor spaced between the corbels supporting the elaborate cornice above. Two large illuminated signs proclaiming ""P.& B." inside a heart graced the northwest and southwest corners fo the roof. Crowley, Milner expanded the building by removing the cornice to add a seventh and eighth floor and expanding east to Library Street. In 1920, they then constructed an eleven-story "home store" on the site of the Goldberg Brothers store east of Library Street. Initially, the 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) annex was connected to the main building by a tunnel. In 1923, the city of Detroit granted permission to connect the two structures above ground and an elaborate five-story bridge opened in 1925. The entrances on Farmer, Gratiot and Monroe were framed by large arches and the windows above the doors on the second floor were topped by a large pediment. One notable feature of the department store was wooden escalators which remained until the structure was demolished in 1977.

The company stumbled slightly when Milner was killed in 1923 while traveling to his store in Toledo. The company lost its president and merchandising expert and his 42 percent interest in the corporation was sold by his heirs. Without Milner, the store eventually came to be known as Crowley's, but the company retained its full name until 1999. Joseph Crowley succeeded his friend and partner as president, but the loss of full control of the by the tight-knit group affected the company for many years.

Like many retailers, the Great Depression impacted Crowley's deeply. Sales plummeted from $39 million in 1928 to only $10 million in 1929. Joseph Crowley died in 1937 and his widow repurchased the shares of the company sold by William Milner's heirs to give the Crowleys majority ownership in the corporation. Daniel J. Crowley, Joseph's son, became president and helped the company chart a course to recovery.