John King Books, like most reputable book stores, has free book racks in the atrium of their colossal warehouse. After I purchased my ephemera I partook of the offer to take as many free books as I wished.
Within the books The King's Minion by Rafael Sabatini (1930) and Treading the Winepress by Ralph Connor (1925) was the book trade label "The Sign of the Mermaid".
Intrigued, I did some research. It traces to a bookshop at 1014 E. Jefferson Avenue of Detroit. The book store by that same name opened around October 23, 1925 and was operated by Doris McMillan Pittman (later Hoover), granddaughter of Senator James McMillan, in the converted home of her late father William C. McMillan.
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| The Yale Alumni Weekly, October 23, 1925 |
Her initial business partners were E. Byrne Hackett, Phelps Newberry and Edwin K. Hoover (later her third husband). Newly graduated Yale alumnus Clayton Morse, Jr. was the manager. An article in The Yale Alumni Weekly from October 23, 1925 stated that he had "spent the summer in travel abroad. He visited a number of bookshops in England." Which is a curious statement since a 1982 article in the Grosse Pointe News, that recollected on the origins of the Grosse Pointe branch from its Detroit namesake, stated:
The sign of the Mermaid has had a fascinating evolution from a London book store to one of the Pointe's finest shops.
In the late 1800s a young English woman opened a bookshop in London, England and named it The Sign of the Mermaid. This name was chosen because it was well known that poets and writers, as well as assorted intellectuals, frequented the London tavern known as the Mermaid and often gathered under its sign in front, to discuss literary matters.
At the turn of the 20th century The Sign of the Mermaid was brought to Detroit as an elegant bookstore and located at 1014 Jefferson Avenue.
Could Morse have been the impetus for Doris's foray into the book world as a bored housewife? A 1974 Detroit Free Press article discussing the sale of the Grosse Pointe location, which Morse founded, states:
When the Morse family opened "The Mermaid" in 1938, it was a bookstore located on near East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit where socialite matrons and civic leaders would browse after lunch at the adjacent Stockholm restaurant.
Which is a bit of revisionist history that obliterates Doris McMillan's hand in the enterprise's founding.
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| Detroit Times, February 10, 1926 |
It was part of a group of shops that included fine furniture and masterworks of art. Newspaper clippings mention the works of Vermeer and others having been along the visiting gallery pieces.
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| Detroit Free Press, October 22, 1925 |
During the Detroit tenure of the store, tragedy struck Mrs. Pittman as her young husband Steuart Pittman died on January 29, 1927 of Hodgkin's Disease. He was 39. Ironically, Doris would die exactly 9 years later at the same age and in the same house at 905 Three Mile Drive in Grosse Pointe.
On October 31, 1927 a Notice of Dissolution was filed on the Sign of the Mermaid with $50,000 capital. I would assume that this was a matter of settling Mr. Pittman's estate as the store seemingly continued with normal operations.
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| The Publishers Weekly, Volume 113, February 4, 1928 |
A year later on February 1, 1928 she opened a branch location at the Book Cadillac formerly occupied by an offshoot of Dennen's Bookshop.
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| Saginaw News, February 10, 1929 |
She then had an ill-fated marriage to her store manager Clayton Morse, Jr. Morse had come to Detroit from Stamford, Connecticut after their marriage in New York.
He also managed her Baltimore location which seemed to
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| Detroit News, April 1, 1932 |
In a 1933 Detroit Times article about the divorce scandal which culminated in a domino effect, creating another divorce and marriage as Morse married the ex-wife of another Grosse Pointe socialite with whom he was apparently having an affair. The latter man, not to be outdone, picked up another wife as well. Only Doris was left by her lonesome.
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| Detroit Times, October 4, 1933 |
As stated in the article below, "what had started as a hobby [the book store]..."ended as a slap." Whether this was a proverbial slap or a physical one has yet to be determined.
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Doris's last attempt at love came two years before her death from heart failure when she married Edwin K. Hoover. He was the former chairman of the First Detroit Co and an initial investor in the $50,000 enterprise along with Doris and Phelps Newberry.
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| Furniture World, Volume 61, 1925 |
They resided in her familial home in Grosse Pointe.
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| Detroit Free Press, January 21, 1934 |
A second book shop is located in the Punch and Judy Theatre Building and is a branch of the ”Sign of the Mermaid” a book store in Detroit. Both this shop and the very inviting Florist shop next door, owned and operated by Arthur Passelk, are especially attractive and unique, having walls and ceilings of antique pine which gives a very home like appearance.
It also seems that Doris tried her hand at book publishing just before her death in 1935 with the release of Caviar to Cordial: A Book of Recipes by Eleanor and Vincent Dwyer. I have yet to delve into this matter so hopefully there will be more information forthcoming.
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| Detroit Free Press, July 20, 1938 |
It seems that by the following year the Stockholm Restaurant, a Swedish smörgåsbord (supposedly the first in Detroit), had taken residence there, and persisted until around 1962. In 1963 The Playboy Club opened its door and was a mainstay for a decade before moving to another location in the city.
The store seems to have persisted into at least the early 1980s but as an importer of rare goods, gifts and finery. Doris died in January of 1936, a few days short of her 40th birthday.
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| Detroit News, January 29, 1936 |
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