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Danto Furniture has been pure Detroit more than half a century longer than Pure Detroit has existed.
When Julius Danto, an immigrant from Lithuania in Eastern Europe, opened the Southwest Detroit shop, Edward Jeffries was mayor, FDR was president and the Pearl Harbor attack was 20 months away. He sold radios in large wooden cabinets and couldn't stock color TVs for nearly two more decades.
Fast-forward to the next century: The neighborhood institution at West Vernor Highway and Central Street -- run by the founder's eldest son, grandson and great-granddaughter -- marks its 75th anniversary this month.
How's that for an immigrant success story?
Irwin Danto, 63, stands between his 26-year-old daughter Ashley and his 84-year-old father Charles -- eldest son of the business founder and a 1949 graduate of Central High School in Detroit.
"We're a survivor in Southwest Detroit -- the longest-standing business in the area," Ashley Danto, 26-year-old marketing manager, tells Deadline.
As a seven-decade presence in the same Detroit neighborhood, Danto has weathered economic cycles, demographic changes, lifestyle revolutions and the ride from 1.6 million Detroiters in 1940 to 688,700 in a 2013 census estimate.
In addition to being a feel-good family saga, its longevity provides a snapshot of America's melting pot. "There is a sense of family and community when you walk in," Ashley Danto says in an email interview. "It's important for Mexican and Arabic clientele, who may not feel comfortable shopping at Art Van or another big box retailer." The West Bloomfield resident adds that her Jewish family's store sits amid shops owned mainly by merchants with Latino or Middle Eastern heritage.
At its website, the venerable retailer talks about how it "has adapted to the needs of a growing immigrant community."
Often people relocating from other parts of the world find it difficult to establish credit and face language barriers. Danto's provides key services to help people overcome these barriers, such as in-house credit and bilingual customer service.
The store offers credit to people who do not meet traditional requirements. In addition, Danto's employs 25 people, several of whom are local residents that speak Spanish or Arabic and communicate casually with customers.
A four-generation business "resonates well with the Mexican and Arabic cultures," says the marketing manager, a 2011 Michigan State graduate who majored in retailing. "It helps when the children of a longtime customer buy their first house and come in with their parents. Why would they shop anywhere else?"
"We're old school because our customer is old school," the founder's great-granddaughter says. Sales slips are written by hand.
The neighborhood's ethnic makeup is among countless changes over 75 years. The merchandise mix also has shifted, with some odd supplements to furniture and appliances along the way.
Coffins were sold during the 1970s, Ashley Danto was surprised to learn. Later, jewelry and early models of cell phones were in stock.
The current location isn't the original site, destroyed in a 1992 fire. Irwin Danto and his father Charles reopened nearby in a vintage building that had been the home of a furniture store called Central Outfitting. The family's neighborhood presence also includes 20 rental properties.
The legacy started by Julius Danto now includes an annex for clearance items and mattresses on Dix Street, less than half a mile north of the main location, and a pop-up branch in Livonia's Laurel Park Place that opens May 4.
"We're old school because our customer is old school," says the founder's great-granddaughter. "We have paper sales slips and develop real, longstanding relationships. I do, however believe in the power of social media and the Internet."
