14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVES DECEMBER 12, 2025 The legend lives on at Downtown Home and Garden SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus Paying attention to detail is rewarded when ambling around Downtown Home and Garden. Among the treasures are virgin maple, Bay City milled flooring, the original Fleetwood Diner sign, and an old grain elevator that once dispensed mixed seeds for feeding farmyard birds. Rumor has it that vestiges of those old seeds are still in the chute. A tour of the basement reveals the last horse stalls in downtown Ann Arbor. The building has been in continuous use supplying farmers and gardeners since circa 1906 and the persistence of the building and business model earned the admiration of owner Mark Hodesh. He originally acquired them back in 1975 from Emma, Herman and Gotleib Hertler. The store was being run then by 89-year old Emma and her nephew, George. Michigan was suffering from factory closings in the early 70s and downtown Ann Arbor was more populated by blowing newspapers and vagrants than active shoppers and diners; families did not venture there. Briarwood was new and shopping malls reigned. With more than 11 vacancies on Main St., property prices were low enough for young guys to buy in. Hodesh's first downtown business was the Fleetwood Diner which he founded when he was 26, after apprenticing at Red's Rite Spot, a 13-seat diner run by Red Shelton and eventually displaced by the Tower Inn. Back then you could get a quality breakfast at the Fleetwood for less than a dollar. Even then, Hodesh believed in quality ingredients and buying locally. “The eggs were from Bilby's Farm, the toast bread came from the Modern Bakery in Detroit — best bread you could get back then, and the jam came from Smuckers, and none of that mixed fruit, either,” Hodesh said. Emma Hertler must have recognized his appreciation of quality and history, because according to Hodesh, she bestowed the company on him. “Sell it to him, Georgie; he's a good boy. He gets up early,” she reputedly commanded her nephew. Hodesh kept the Downtown Home and Garden will close on December 24, 2025 after 119 years in Ann Arbor. name Hertler Brothers and made money his first year. He shrewdly purchased the lot next door and made it into the store parking lot. Business grew 500 percent in five years. Hodesh and his wife, artist Margaret Parker, found another business opportunity in the Castine Inn in Maine at a time they were ready for a change. They sold the Hertler Brothers name and business and moved to the Inn located on Penobscot Bay, north of Bar Harbor. Parker appreciated the light in Maine where the blues were bluer and it sparkled like Greece. She created large pieces of art for the Inn and Castine School while they were there. Hertler Brothers faltered in the late 1990's, and faced with the prospect of an abandoned building on the property they still owned, Hodesh and Parker elected to return to Ann Arbor in 1997 and restore the business, though they no longer had rights to the name. The renamed Downtown Home and Garden again prospered under their ownership. Like today, it was a time of gardening resurgence with an emphasis on organic gardening. Parker redesigned the parking lot, transforming it into a popular location for weddings and parties when the store is closed. She also does advertising covers, including those for their store, and is a member of the Commission on Art and Public Places. She was recently honored at the Grand Rapids Art Prize competition for her entry “C'ood,” a piece 10 feet high and 24 feet in diameter. It was constructed with help from volunteers and made from donated t-shirts — very fitting for a work whose name is a contraction of “Common Good.” A great interactive piece, it is looking for a home, either indoors or out, for as long as it lasts. She may be doing some more design work this summer since Hodesh recently purchased the lot on the northwest corner of his building that once sported a parking structure exit ramp. Look for more on this project in an upcoming issue of Groundcover. Hodesh is not sentimental about the business but likes being part of downtown Ann Arbor. The grittiness is part of the appeal, as is the sturdiness of the building. The store is a small infrastructure project with heating and hot water systems sized for a house. In the winter, they wear more sweaters. In the summer, an awning protects the store from direct sun. Through good times and bad, the store's foundation proved solid: Plant a seed, grow a plant, harvest, cook and can it. The products carried today are similar to those stocked for the last 100 years. The town has changed and today's patrons are more urban gardener than farmer, but just like his earlier Hertler Brothers and Fleetwood customers, they have their eyes wide open and are ready to appreciate something good. Originally published in the December 2010 - January 2011 edition of Groundcover News.
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