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Ronald Ahrens

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Carve-outs

A hundred years ago, architect Albert Kahn made one of his regular visits to New York City to meet with architectural sculptors. Kahn had big commissions from the University of Michigan and General Motors,...
Woman looking out window

Ms. Koch Goes to Washington

Suffering from nerves one morning last July, Cathy Koch ordered breakfast but couldn’t eat. So the president and CEO of K-Tec Systems Inc. in Ferndale fasted enroute to the United States Capitol.Koch (pronounced “Cook”)...
People waiting for public transportation

End of the Line

In the early 20th century, people reviled the Detroit United Railway, the streetcar system that one historian called “an outlaw corporation.” Mayoral campaigns focused on street rail over a long period, while in 1913...
Industrial loom

Room for a Lady

During the Cranbrook Educational Community’s initial development nearly a century ago, founder George Booth suggested to Loja Saarinen that she should create textiles to complement her husband Eliel’s architectural designs.Eliel became president of Cranbrook...

DBusiness Billionaire Playbook

Name another city in the world that has a multibillionaire — in this case, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rocket Cos. — who has acquired some 100 major properties in the central business...
Soap Box Derby racers cross finish line.

Pull of Gravity

With support from Chevrolet, the All-American Soap Box Derby became an enduring national pastime

Let’s Make a Dill

Through the mists of time, pickles have been a tangy condiment served with meals as well as a bracing snack between them.During 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites survived on manna and wistfully...

Retail is Detail

Belle Tire Distributors Inc. Headquarters: Allen Park Founded: 1922 CEO: Jack Lawless President and Owner: Donald Barnes III Stores: 130+ Employees: 2,300 Revenue: $700M (projected 2023)Sermonizing by Belle Tire Corp. was unusual. Its typical newspaper ad referred to value days or...
Flight of Fancy - A single-seat aircraft, the Ford Flivver was intended to be the “Model T of the Air,” but the plane never caught on. Today, Model No. 1, built in 1926, is on display at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn. // Courtesy of The Henry Ford

Flivver Talk

Harry Brooks was rushing to an engagement in Berkley, so the young test pilot showed his derring-do (and showed up on time) by landing the prototype Ford Flivver airplane on Woodward Avenue near the...
Dynamic Range - Founded in 1931, Detrola Corp. found early success producing low-cost radios during the Depression. They soon developed private brand radios for department stores and merchants, and added cameras in 1939. // Courtesy of Mike Eckman

Photo Finish

Even as a novice photographer in the 1930s, Saul Leiter enjoyed the smooth precision and bold design of the Detrola camera his mother had given him. He went on to shoot photos for Life...

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