5538 Chene and 5532 Chene Street
J. & L. Novelty Company Store, Lendzon’s Store, Lendzon’s 5 to 5
5538 Chene Street was built in 1914 for Victor Jurkiewicz and Constantyn Lendzon. Preston, Brown & Walker designed the structure; however, it looks shockingly different today than it did back then.
The Detroit Free Press reported that the structure, which was of brick and steel construction, was designed to house Victor Jurkiewicz and Constance Lendzon’s J. & L. Novelty Company Store. The shop had terrazzo floors, large built-in showcases, a large central stairway leading to the basement, and a back staircase connecting to the second floor.
Prior to construction, this parcel was home to the Clifford Theater. In March 1914, Frank Luzon placed an advert in the Detroit Free Press to find a partner. He wanted $500 to repair the place, which had showings every night. In return, the investor would get half the interest of the business. The only other mention I’ve found of the Clifford Theater on Chene Street came in July 1913 when the Detroit Free Press reported that John Wolff’s wife had taken their baby into the theatre and returned outside to find someone had stolen their baby carriage. I’m curious if Frank Luzon had any relation to C. Lendzon, as the paper often misprinted names and English was many business owners on Chene Street’s second language.
According to a 1996 Detroit Free Press article, Constance Lendzon emigrated from Poland via Germany. He was a cabinet maker by trade but opened a candy store in Detroit shortly after coming to America in 1907. When he went into business with Victor Jurkiewicz, I can’t be sure.
In 1916, three amateur burglars and jokesters broke into three stores, including the J. & L. Novelty shop on Chene Street. The trio stole $126 worth of goods, including $28 in merchandise from the structure pictured here. The boys were caught after the owner of the Union Hat Company on Gratiot went after them. At his store, the boys had taken clothing off mannequins and put their own small, tattered clothing onto the storefront displays. Additionally, they stole rifles and cartridges at Jacob Witzman’s store on Gratiot.
Eventually, the J. & L. Novelty Shop became Lendzon’s, or Lendzon’s 5 to 5 Store. In that era, five-cent to five-dollar stores were common, and Lendzon’s had multiple locations. By 1954, they had a store at 10316 Joseph Campau in Hamtramck, which is home to Hamtramck Furniture today. By 1949, they also had a store on East Eight Mile Road. Constance Lendzon died in 1948, resulting in his son, Paul, taking over the store. He went into the fabric business at some point, operating some 10 Sew ’n Save Fabric Shops in Metro Detroit, retiring in 1972.
I haven’t been able to pinpoint an exact date that Lendzon’s at 5538 Chene Street closed; however, Andy Brogowicz, a local historian and friend of this page, estimates that it was likely shortly after 1963. In 1956, Paul Lendzon sold the stores to various managers.
By the end, Lendzon’s had become your average five-and-dime store, a breed of shopping that became increasingly rare in the 1980s and 1990s. The final Lendzon’s, at 10316 Joseph Campau in Hamtramck, closed in 1996. Loreto Lozzi and his son Russ operated that location. According to the Detroit Free Press, that location had been open for 79 years, which I’m not sure is correct.
In 1993, the structure back on Chene Street was selling various items in the paper. In addition to desks, files, chairs, and tables, there were big drafting boards and train layout tables. Likely, someone purchased the structure, or a tenant was evicted, leaving behind inventory.
In 2016, the structure was repainted for the film Transformers: The Last Knight. The faux ghost sign was made to look like a building supply company selling stained glass windows and other building materials. Numerous structures in Poletown East got the fake sign treatment, including Max’s and the former Kroger Grocery.
Today, the structure and the small one next door are owned by an LLC linked to Dennis Kefallinos and his son, Julian. The family owns a handful of structures around Poletown East and has done little to attempt to revitalize them, which is par for the course for the Kefallinos family. In 2022, all of their structures in Poletown East got a similar facelift. Don’t get too excited—this work was only to stop blight tickets from piling up and not much more. 5701 Chene, the former Nowak Hall and Palmer Bankery, and 5501-5507 Chene, the former Lincoln Hall and Mazurka Club, got the same treatment.
The structure on the right, 5532 Chene Street, has little to no online footprint. I believe that, at some point, these two structures were conjoined, as they featured the same tall, narrow windows and appeared to have once shared an awning. Kefallinos also own this structure.
Both buildings were a part of the 1974 facelift in the neighborhood that saw improvements to the Chene-Ferry Market and structures on Chene Street nearby.
Kefallinos will likely sit on these properties until the city forces him to do something with them (unlikely) or something in the neighborhood spurs development, at which point he will flip them for a huge profit.
