From the Archives: Best of men's clothing stores, then and now

Vickki Dozier
Lansing State Journal

Where did the dapper, well-dressed gentleman go to find a suit, dress shirts, shoes in the Lansing area?

Hurd's Men's Store in East Lansing, undated photo.

Through the years, the Lansing area had several local stores that catered to men.

Arthur E. Hurd founded Hurd's Men's Shop in Lansing in 1908 at 234 S. Washington Ave., opposite the Downey Hotel.

Hurd's carried linen and seersucker suits, trench coats for spring and summer and polo top coats for fall.

An October 1932 State Journal ad boasted "suede blouses, a scarce, hard-to-get article, reindeer color, full cut from select hides with knit collars, waist band and cuffs." The button-down was $6.45, the zippered was $6.95.

The store did so well, Hurd opened a men's clothing store and haberdashery at 209 E. Grand River Ave. in East Lansing in 1925.

Small's men's store, 211 S. Washington Ave., date unknown.

That was followed by the opening of the Hurd Hotel Shop, a haberdashery and clothing business in the Hotel Olds Building on West Michigan Avenue in July 1926. That shop shut its doors in March 1932. Hurd died in 1943.

The East Lansing store added a "Pendleton shop for ladies" in September 1958.

Hurd's daughters, Margaret Hurd Whitmore and Eleanor Hurd Taylor, took over the business in July 1959. The East Lansing store closed for the summer later that month. It never reopened. It was announced in December 1959 Hurd's was going out of business.

Kositchek's, the family-owned and operated men's apparel store in downtown Lansing, has been in business for 150 years and is now in the hands of the fourth generation.

Exterior of H. Kositchek & Bros., circa 1917.

The store was started in 1865 by Henry Kositchek in Eaton Rapids and moved to its present location in downtown Lansing in the late 1800s.

Kositchek's is now owned by David Kositchek, great-grandson of the founder.

Over the years, Kositchek's has offered a boy's department, Scout shop, full big-and-tall shop, a formal-wear store, a full-service on-site hair salon, a women's shoe section, a small women's clothing department, shoe shines, custom ordering and complimentary tailoring.

They also opened a store in Okemos at Central Park Place in 1987 but closed it down in 1993 to concentrate their efforts on the Lansing location.

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Holden-Reid, a specialty men's shop, opened at the north end of Frandor Shopping Center in November 1955.

Through the years, there were several Holden-Reid branches: in the Lansing Mall, in downtown Lansing, in the Logan Shopping Center, in the Galleria Center in Okemos and in the Meridian Mall.

They also operated a store in East Lansing for quite some time, called Canterbury Shop, at the corner of M.A.C. and Grand River Avenue. Holden-Reid closed its last store in 2016.

Other men's stores that served the Lansing area included Small's, 200 block of South Washington Avenue; J. Strolle Gentlemen's Attire, 200 block of North Clippert Street; Stabler's Men's Store, 400 block of East Michigan Avenue; Redwood & Ross, 100 block of South Washington Avenue and 200 block of East Grand River Avenue in East Lansing; and several chain stores.

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @vickkiD.