The Trend is to Barie’s: Motherhood, Shopping, and Saginaw’s Most Progressive Store
- 49 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Opened in 1860 in East Saginaw, Barie’s Dry Goods Emporium represented the considerable business acumen of William Barie, who settled in Saginaw as a young man and spent the rest of his life serving the people of Saginaw with inexpensive, quality merchandise, innovative ideas, and memorable advertising. His legacy continued several years after his death—and while we could easily spend pages tracing the many incarnations of Barie’s business ventures, it’s Mother’s Day, and today we’re turning our attention to the women and mothers who helped make Barie’s a downtown institution.
More specifically, today’s story centers on the short-lived restaurant inside Barie’s Dry Goods Emporium while it occupied the southwest corner of Genesee Avenue and Baum Street in Downtown Saginaw. Known as The Pine Room, the restaurant was part of an ambitious expansion campaign aimed squarely at female shoppers—many of them busy mothers balancing household budgets, errands, and family life during the difficult years of the Great Depression.
During the late 1920s and into the 1930s, Barie’s advertising increasingly focused on women, emphasizing convenience, comfort, and affordability. At a time when every penny mattered, the store sought to ease some of the burdens of daily shopping and homemaking. Beyond special sales on women’s goods, Barie’s introduced a dedicated infant department conveniently located on the main floor, along with an in-house floral shop, beauty parlor, and The Pine Room restaurant itself. Shopping at Barie’s wasn’t an errand—it was an experience.
During a series of specialized “spotlight sales” in February 1932, Barie’s first hinted at the soon-to-open Pine Room luncheonette. While the sales promoted deep discounts on different items throughout all 29 days of February (1932 being a leap year), the broader advertising theme was “Watch Us Grow”—a slogan prominently featured during this era of expansion.
“These additions [of new specialized departments, new item lines, and the Pine Room restaurant] are being made to make Barie’s an outstanding Saginaw institution and shopping Headquarters for Saginaw Housewives.” (The Saginaw Daily News, Thursday, April 7, 1932.)
Though expanding during the depths of the Depression may have been a risky undertaking—perhaps even one William Barie himself might have questioned had he still been alive after his death in 1919—it reflected the same spirit of innovation that had long defined Barie’s. Continuing with these new ideas, the first official mention of The Pine Room appeared in a March 1, 1932, advertisement encouraging readers to “Watch for the Opening.”
By March 20, The Pine Room officially opened on the first floor of Barie’s. Featuring its own entrance off Baum Street, the restaurant offered breakfast selections, affordable luncheon specials, and dinner options including baby T-bone steaks and southern fried chicken. For mothers spending the day downtown shopping for clothing, household goods, or children’s items, the Pine Room offered a convenient place to rest, dine, and gather. Dessert selections included sundaes, chocolate sodas, and fountain treats, while Saturday evening reservations (from 6–9 p.m.) suggest The Pine Room also catered to families enjoying a special night out together.
The Pine Room continued serving Saginaw diners throughout 1932 before quietly disappearing from Barie’s advertisements. The 1933 Saginaw City Directory still listed “The Pine Room” alongside Barie’s Dry Goods at 400–404 Genesee, though by 1934 and 1935 the restaurant was no longer mentioned. It is possible that the store’s ambitious Depression-era growth strategy proved difficult to sustain, and the Pine Room’s unannounced closure may have been the first indication of deeper struggles ahead.
By the end of July 1935, Barie’s temporarily closed in order to relocate to a new building at the southwest corner of Lapeer and Warren Avenue. Though only “Just a Block Beyond the Clock,”* the move appeared to mark the beginning of Barie’s decline. Advertising proudly proclaimed, “Our Location Saves You Money,” referencing the move away from the expensive “high rent” Genesee Avenue business district—but the relocation also placed the store outside the heart of downtown shopping activity.
Only a year later, in August 1936, Barie’s began advertising a going-out-of-business sale. After 76 years serving Saginaw families, Barie’s reign as one of the city’s great dry goods emporiums came to an end—likely another casualty of the difficult economic times. Ironically, Montgomery Ward, a similar national chain department store, moved into the former Barie’s location at Genesee and Baum.
Though neither Barie’s nor the Pine Room survives today, their story offers a fascinating glimpse into how businesses once catered to Saginaw’s mothers, homemakers, and families during one of America’s most challenging decades. And somehow, we suspect our exploration of Barie’s story is only just beginning…
*“The Clock” refers to the clock tower Jacob Seligman added to his Genesee and Lapeer clothing store building after purchasing it from Col. Michael Jeffers in 1890; it soon became a Saginaw landmark.
The Recipe: A Fresh Strawberry Sundae in the Style of The Pine Room
In honor of Mother’s Day—and perhaps the mothers who once paused for dessert after an afternoon of shopping at Barie’s—we offer a simple sundae inspired by the Pine Room fountain counter.
Ingredients
Vanilla ice cream of your choice
Strawberries
Sugar to taste
Whipped cream
Directions
Clean, trim, and slice the strawberries. Place them in a bowl with sugar to taste, lightly crushing some of the berries to create extra juice. Set aside.
Place the desired number of scoops of vanilla ice cream into a dish (absolutely no judgment here).
Top with strawberries and their syrupy juice, then finish with whipped cream. Enjoy while imagining an afternoon spent browsing the bustling aisles of Barie’s—or admiring the latest floral arrangements from Earl Chisolm.**
** Yet another fascinating side story connected to Barie’s: Earl Chisolm served as general manager of Barie’s Floral Shop from its opening in 1932 until the store closed in 1936, even after the move around the corner. We hope to explore Earl’s story in the future.