Herpolsheimer's was a
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
company headquartered in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
.
History

At the end of the Civil War in 1865, Prussian-American businessman and Union Army veteran Mike cox. Herpolsheimer co-founded the dry goods business Voight, Herpolsheimer & Co. in
Michigan City, Indiana
Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It had a population of 32,075 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Lake Michigan in the Michiana region, the city is about east of Chicago and is west o ...
, in partnership with Charles G. A. Voigt. In 1870, he opened a second store in
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
. He handed over management of the business to his son Henry C. Herpolsheimer in 1902.
In 1928, the store was acquired by Hahn's Department Stores, a holding company which later morphed into the
Allied Stores
Allied Stores was a holding company of department store chains in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn ...
conglomerate in 1935. In 1933, the Hahn's group would also acquire L.H. Field & Co. of
Jackson, Michigan
Jackson is a city in Jackson County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 31,309 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Interstate 94 in Michigan, Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127 in Michigan, U.S ...
, with the Jackson "Field's" stores becoming a sister operation to the Herpolsheimer's store in Grand Rapids. (In later years, advertisements would note customers could use their "Herpolsheimer's/Field's Credit Cards" at locations of either store.)
After suffering a fire almost three years prior and following subsequent litigation between the parties, the William D. Hardy Company of
Muskegon
Muskegon ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Muskegon County, Michigan, United States. Situated around a harbor of Lake Michigan, Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, and boating. It is the most populous city along Lake Michigan' ...
, operating Hardy's Department Store, agreed in 1947 to merge its operations with a newly opened Herpolsheimer's branch location in Muskegon and proceed as Hardy-Herpolsheimer's. A brand new building for the flagship downtown Grand Rapids location was constructed and opened in 1949 at the northwest corner of Fulton Street and Division Avenue, also fronting on Monroe Street, on which its former store was located two blocks to the west. The former location was sold to local competitor Wurzburg's. In a departure from the traditional department store format, Herpolsheimer's opened location selling only furniture, appliances, televisions and limited hardware in the Tower Building at River Avenue and 8th Street in downtown
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
in October 1948. It operated until at least 1955 before closing. The first suburban full-line department store outlet for the growing chain was acquired from Wurzburg's in
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
in 1974 and the Hardy-Herpolsheimer's in Muskegon was later assumed into the
Muskegon Mall development in 1976. With the opening of the Southland store in suburban Wyoming in 1974, the store officially rebranded themselves as "Herp's," which is how they had been colloquially referred to for many years, including a new logo. In 1981, L.W. Robinson, an old-line department store in downtown
Battle Creek
Battle Creek is a city in northwestern Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a tota ...
, was purchased and rebranded as Herp's.

Starting in 1985, the downtown Grand Rapids store was reduced in size, with the remainder being converted to a shopping mall called City Centre. With the City Centre "grand re-opening," Herpolsheimer's officially reverted to its full name, giving up on the shortened "Herp's" version from eleven years prior. The full Herpolsheimer's name was restored to the downtown Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Muskegon, and Battle Creek stores. In 1987, the two Herpolsheimer's stores in the Grand Rapids area, were merged into Allied Stores'
Indianapolis
Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
-based
William H. Block
The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana. It was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main s ...
unit and were sold to
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (previously Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment in 1929, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus (departm ...
. At that same time, the downtown Battle Creek and Muskegon stores were sold to separate local groups of investors—the Battle Creek location reverted to its former "Robinson's" name while the Muskegon store returned to its "Hardy's" moniker, while the three L.H. Field & Co. (Field's) stores in Jackson were shuttered. Later in November of that year, the two remaining Herpolsheimer's stores, now under Federated ownership, adopted the
Lazarus
Lazarus may refer to:
People
*Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name
* Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus
* Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus
* Lazar ...
name. As part of Federated's bankruptcy proceedings after having been purchased, ironically, by Allied—the entity that had spun off Herpolsheimer's to Federated in the first place in 1987—the Lazarus division announced it would shutter the two Grand Rapids area stores in the City Centre and Wyoming Village (Southland), on September 8, 1990. Thus ended 120 years of retailing, 117 years with the Herpolsheimer name and the final three as Lazarus. The City Centre itself would finally close at the end of July, 1993 after most of its shops closed.
During the pre-Christmas shopping period, Herpolsheimer's operated the "Santa Express" miniature train on a monorail suspended from the ceiling of the basement in its downtown Grand Rapids store. When in operation as the City Centre mall, the space below the train served as a food-court and the train was run year-round, painted in a non-seasonal livery. The train is now located at the
Grand Rapids Public Museum.
In popular culture
Herpolsheimer's was also featured in the 2004 film ''
The Polar Express
''The Polar Express'' is a 1985 fantasy children's picture book written and illustrated by American author Chris Van Allsburg. The book is now widely considered to be a classic Christmas story for young children. It was praised for its detaile ...
''. The boy had a picture from Herpolsheimer's of himself ripping the fake beard off the store's Santa Claus. Later, as the boy is riding the train to the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
, the know-it-all exclaims "Hey, Herpolsheimer's! Herpolsheimer's!" as the train passes the store in what is presumably downtown Grand Rapids. The children aboard the train admire the store's window displays as they pass, with the boy smirking at an obviously
animatronic
An animatronic is a puppet controlled electronically to move in a fluent way. Animatronics are the modern adaptation of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films, video games and in theme park attractions.
Anim ...
Santa placing presents in one display.
Herpolsheimer's produced a series of advertising cards in 1921 which featured pictures of notable
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
players of the time. Long thought to be legendary, a trove of cards was discovered housed in a Band-Aid box in a 2019 estate sale. The cards came to auction in 2023. The
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional Baseball in the United States, baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nickna ...
card realized over $154,000. 37 other cards sold for as much as $3,400.
Notable employees
*
Betty Ford
Elizabeth Anne Ford (; formerly Warren; April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011) was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977, as the wife of President Gerald Ford. As first lady, she was active in social policy, and set a precedent as a politi ...
, former fashion coordinator
*
Scott Haraburda, former department store Santa
William H Coleman, shoe department
See also
*
List of defunct department stores of the United States
This is a list of defunct department stores of the United States, from small-town one-unit stores to mega-chains, which have disappeared over the past 100 years. Many closed, while others were sold or merged with other department stores.
Depar ...
References
External links
*
Herpolsheimer's trainvideo via
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.
{{Macy's history
1865 establishments in Indiana
Companies based in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Defunct department stores based in Michigan