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| Knudsen's Danish Bakery |
Knudsen's Danish Bakery of North Rosedale Park has closed just shy of 100 years in business (1923 - 2018). It was located most recently at 18601 W. McNichols Road. What a span of time! First opened just after the end of World War I until last month in late April of 2018. I thought I might put together an article on the business given it's long run. I invite anyone with information to comment. For as popular a place as this bakery was, there was not all that much on the internet, Lexis or other paid databases.
I personally remember Knudsens Danish Bakery well as a kid in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. My uncles and aunts would take turns taking me there for the chocolate glazed donuts or to pick up a cake. My aunt's house on Westmoreland was very close to the bakery on Westmoreland. Our family birthday cakes would often come from Knudsen's Danish Bakery as well. It is too bad that the institution is no longer with us, but it really had a good run. Not many businesses ever last this long.
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| Knudsen's Bakery Front |
Knudsen's Danish Bakery was established in 1923 by Danish immigrants. Some articles cite the business as starting in Livonia, but I have had a hard time tracking this down. According to property reports, the Knudsen's building was built in 1954 and held approximately 2,785 square feet. It appears that the business moved to the 18601 McNichols location shortly after 1954. It was probably located in Livonia before then. I believe that the original owner, or one of the original owners was a Louis Knudsen from Denmark.
Until 1977, the bakery was owned by Elizabeth Knudsen, until she passed away that year. From what I can tell, Elizabeth Knudsen was from North Dakota originally, born the same year as Knudsen's opened, in 1923 in Hannah, North Dakota as Elizabeth Pladsen, who moved to the Detroit area by the 1940 census.
Eventually, the business was sold to the Dimitrieski family that kept it until they retired in April of 2018. They decided to retire and the business shut down. The current asking price is $150,000. I hope that somebody buys the business and keeps a bakery there. Here are some photos to help remember the Bakery.
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| Window View - Knudsens |
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| Parking Lot View - Knudsens |
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| How I remember Knudsen's Cakes - Roses |
They had great Danish pastries and cakes, and were well-known for their potato bread, bread rolls, and egg bread. They were still making their old-style baked goods right up until the end, and maybe that did them in. I know that the last few times I went in, they didn't have much of a selection. The clerk said they only baked items on certain days. There were two times I visited in the last couple of years when they didn't have any bread except day-old.
ReplyDeleteKnudsens supplied all the pasteries to the Danish Club at Grand River and Beaverton.
ReplyDeleteThe bakery was on the corner of Greenview St. We lived about a half block down that street. At the time, 1950s, the Knudsen family lived on Greenview about 4 houses down the street from us, closer to the bakery. One of us kids were sent down to pick up a freshly baked loaf of bread nearly every day. Best baked goods I've ever been to.
ReplyDelete