Steketee's was a department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 based in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was begun in 1862 in Grand Rapids, and soon grew to several stores throughout southwestern Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. After a purchase by the Dunlaps

Dunlaps

Dunlaps, based in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, was a family-owned chain of department stores in the central and southern United States catering to most classes depending on the location. The chain operated under the trade names of Dunlaps, Stripling & Cox, MM Cohn, Rogers, Clark's, Schreiner's, Kerr's,...

 company of Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

 in the early 1990s, the stores were gradually closed off, with the last store closing in 2003.

History

Paul Steketee, a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 immigrant, came to Grand Rapids in 1850. In 1862 Steketee and John H. Doornich formed a dry goods operation that would become one of West Michigan's oldest retailers. The two ran the store for 10 years before a fire devastated the business. Following the fire, Doornich sold out to Steketee, who brought his family on board to help run and rebuild the operation. With the growth of Grand Rapids the family decided to build a larger 8 story flagship store on Monroe Avenue, the city's retail hub. The store opened with much fanfare in 1915. The draw of Steketee's Grand Rapids store was big enough that the family decided to expand its operations in the 1950s opening its first satellite store in 1958.

Sale and demise

In 1991, Dunlaps

Dunlaps

Dunlaps, based in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, was a family-owned chain of department stores in the central and southern United States catering to most classes depending on the location. The chain operated under the trade names of Dunlaps, Stripling & Cox, MM Cohn, Rogers, Clark's, Schreiner's, Kerr's,...

, a Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

 department store company, bought out the Steketee's family, bringing the West Michigan operations under their umbrella of brands. Changes in retail patterns and the rise of national brands sealed the fate of the downtown Grand Rapids store and its other locations, including one at Maple Hill Mall

Maple Hill Mall

Maple Hill Mall was an enclosed shopping mall serving the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Maple Hill Mall became a dead mall after several years of decline and the loss of several major tenants...

in Kalamazoo in 2002. The downtown store closed in 1998. Dunlap's shuttered its last Steketee's store in 2003 with the closing of the Westshore Mall location.