Pick-Durant Purple Cow restaurant

Construction of the eight story Hotel Durant structure began in 1919 and was opened in 1920.  It was the largest and grandest hotel in Flint for decades.

Beginning in March 1941, the Hotel Durant (named after William “Billy” Durant [1861-1947] co-founder of General Motors and founder of the Frigidaire brand) was renamed the Pick-Durant after the Albert Pick Hotels Corporation (Pick Hotels) acquired rights to the property and commissioned Louis Grell to paint his popular Purple Cow murals for the newly remodeled coffee shop.  At least eleven murals were created and installed in early 1941.  Pick Hotels further announced in June, 1942 it had purchased the property outright and recently completed a 15 month remodel of the remainder of the hotel.  The interior was redecorated under the supervision of Pick Hotels Executive Decorator Miss Ursala Suerth, who worked closely with Grell on countless Pick hotel improvements.  It was common for Grell to be commissioned to paint murals for the lobby, a restaurant or ballroom and the Purple Cow shop all under one roof totaling as many as twelve or more individual murals for one hotel site.  Grell painted the murals in his Chicago studio, then shipped them to the location to be installed by local artisans.  There is no evidence to date that Grell signed any of these murals.  Grell painted murals for at least eight Purple Cow shops before the Durant.  Each location had one locally themed mural also created by Grell that would have a local competition for the poem to be later written onto the bottom.

ABOVE – Miss Suerth and Mr. Grell worked closely on decorating Albert Pick Hotels.

Nine of the known eleven Pick-Durant Purple Cow murals were reportedly saved by a waitress around 1973 when the hotel closed and were later acquired by Kettering University.  The University selected two of the more locally themed murals for conservation; GM TECH and HOW SHE CAN COOK. The GM TECH mural today hangs on a wall inside the recently created GM Purple Cow cafe on the second floor at Factory One.  HOW SHE CAN COOK today hangs on a wall on the first floor.  Seven others are in storage and awaiting conservation work.  One Purple Cow mural ran away (YOUNG THING) before the waitress saved the others and is currently held in a private collection.  The partial mural shown to the right of the GM TECH mural is SET HER GOAL and remains missing.  It was reported that the murals were stored in the basement of the abandoned hotel when salvaged.  It is presumed that during a 1952 renovation of the Purple Cow, when the kitchen was moved to the back wall, the cove area was removed.  The article stated that minor work on the murals was performed.  It is  possible that some of the clouds were painted over at this time.  If the cove area was removed during this renovation, this could explain why YOUNG THING and SET HER GOAL are not part of the Kettering University collection.

A visit by Grell researchers to Flint in September 2022, to Factory One and Kettering University Archives was a huge success and wonderful time.  We also visited the Sloan Museum of Discovery and found additional archives related to the Pick-Durant murals by Grell.  We have established that at least eleven Purple Cow murals were painted by Grell for the Pick-Durant, who may have also painted another mural inside the Adams room, a larger eating establishment inside the Durant (see photos above).

The eleven known Purple Cow murals at the Pick-Durant are: HOW SHE CAN COOK, GM TECH, DIZZY HEIGHT, MISSED DRAFT, FAIR COMPLEXION, CHARMING DATE, RATHER SEE THAN BE, POSITIVELY MERRY, BE A TREAT, SET HER GOAL and YOUNG THING.  During a December 1952 and January 1953 remodel of the coffee show The Flint Journal reported “[t]he murals will be changed slightly (December 18, 1952 p. 4).”  This is likely when a local artist was hired by the hotel manager to paint over some of the clouds.  Although clouds were not used in the Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow cafe, clouds were a staple in many Grell productions including easel works.  Grell reused many of the central characters of these murals for numerous other Pick Hotel Purple Cow shops throughout the hotel chain (see the Dayton Ohio ad, the four watercolors by Grell and the Pick Topicks magazine articles), but he would usually alter the scenery surrounding the cow.  So far, research has established that no two Purple Cow murals were exactly alike.

-HOTEL JERMYN photo revelations-

At the Durant, there was a hidden cove to the right of the GM TECH mural and it wasn’t until the photo of the Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow shop surfaced in mid-2025 that we were able to establish that SET HER GOAL is the partially shown mural.  You can see “THE AND RECA’ WHE’” written on the wall.  Compared to the Hotel Jermyn photo you can easily decipher the missing mural is SET HER GOAL.  Presumably, YOUNG THING also would have been hidden in the cove at the Durant.  The Hotel Jermyn photo shows FAIR COMPLEXION, BE A TREAT, YOUNG THING and SET HER GOAL murals.  Two other murals are blurred in the photo above the far end of the counter and at least one other mural is cut off to the right of the photo.

“THE BOVINE LADY SET HER GOAL

AND THEN SHE WENT RIGHT TO IT

RECALL THIS PICTURE ALL THROUGH LIFE

WHEN TOLD YOU NE ER CAN DO IT”

The poem for the ‘one locally themed mural’ was a highly competitive selection process where members of the public submitted their creations as part of a public competition where one jingle was selected out of thousands, then later painted onto the bottom of that locally themed mural.  Menus had entry cards attached to them. Typically the winning entrant was paid $25 ($555 today) for the use of the jingle and often the event made the local newspapers.  The GM Tech at the Pick-Durant was the one locally themed mural designed by Grell specifically for Flint.  The other murals were utilized by Grell at multiple locations.  Notice that the poem was not drawn onto the bottom of the GM Tech mural at the time the photo was taken indicating the contest for the ‘jingle’ was not over yet (see photo montage above).  Someone in Flint likely created those words that were later added to the bottom of Grell’s mural by a local artist.  The other ten poems were drawn on by Grell since they were reused in other locations as indicated by the 1940 Dayton ad.

This Purple Cow glass with a sketch very similar to Grell’s MISSED DRAFT mural has a different poem than the one in the Durant indicating that possibly different jingles were used under the same cow scene:

THE PURPLE COW IS FEELING BLUE

HER SON HAS LEFT FOR A YEAR OR TWO

BUT SHE IS PROUD TO DO HER PART

FOR SHE’S A PATRIOT AT HEART

Compared to the Durant Hotel MISSED DRAFT (not conserved) version below:

The Pick Hotels Purple Cow restaurants utilized Grell’s rendition of the cow on all its restaurant ware including glasses, cups, plates and menus.

-PROCESS-

The Pick Hotels leased or purchased a hotel building site; typically the largest and nicest downtown structure.  A decision was made to install a Purple Cow shop or not.  If yes, then Pick Executive Decorator Ursala Suerth and Pick Hotels muralist Louis Grell would discuss color and designs by looking at paint, drapes and carpet colors, etc..  Based on photographs and design plans of the location, Grell would determine how many could fit into the restaurant based on design, sketches and the layout of each shop.  Grell would research important local industry, landscape and history to create the locally themed mural.  Grell would draw sketches, then water colors for Mrs. Suerth and Mr. Pick to approve.  He would then design, create and draw the murals using oil on canvas at his Chicago studio.  Once finished and dried, he would have them rolled them up and shipped to the hotel site for installation by local artisans.  The locally themed mural would not have a “jingle” written on the bottom until after the competition.  Once installed, the hotel would hold a local competition for the poem or ‘jingle’ for the one locally themed mural.  This ‘jingle’ contest process would likely take months after all the oil on canvas murals were glued to the walls to give patrons a chance to submit their poems.  Each menu handed to all customers had an entry card pined to it for the customer to write down a jingle.  As many as 4,000 entrants were reportedly submitted.

In the below right photo, there likely are murals above the booths at the lower left and lower right of the picture.  Individual murals were installed above each booth were there was a wall and space allowed.

In the above left photo of the Durant, there likely was at least one more mural to the left of FAIR COMPLEXION because you can see another booth.  In the cove to the right of GM TECH we have SET HER GOAL and likely two more murals.  Presumably, murals were also on the wall behind the camera.  Eleven total known murals at the Durant.

Doris Day and Albert Pick Jr.,  EVEN TRADE; likely taken at the Hotel Durant (The Flint Journal August 6, 1953 page 25).

The included four watercolors (shown in the above photo montage) were drawn by Grell in c1940 during this period and also adopted into the 1940 ad for the Pick Hotel Miami in Dayton.  It is estimated by our research that as many as seventy Purple Cow murals were imagineered by Grell.

2018 – Many thanks to Kettering University and Gregory M. Miller, Director Special Collections and University Archives in 2018 for sharing the photos and the amazing story behind the salvage of the murals.

2022 – Special thanks to Jonathan and Michelle with the Sloan Museum of Discovery for assisting in research and being so welcoming and accommodating.

2022 – Kettering University Special Collections and Archives / General Motors and specifically Melanie Bazil, Archivist and Dr. Dina Mein, University Librarian for taking the time to meet, provide a wonderful tour of Factory One and assisting in research.

YOUNG THING – Celebrating the gaiety of times while having fun with the Purple Cow ice cream and sandwich shop themes. This salvaged fragment depicts a banjo playing bovine with her beautifully colored cooking attire hoofing away on the strings.  A simple visual analysis of the two YOUNG THING murals confirms they are two distinct murals.  The foliage surrounding the seated bovine strumming on the banjo is completely different at the two know locations.  This oil on canvas perfectly conserved mural is from the Hotel Durant.

The four small Purple Cow (c1940) watercolors are part of the Louis Grell family collection.

HOW SHE CAN COOK and GM TECH murals are currently on exhibit at Factory One, Flint, MI

*August 28, 1941 black & white photo of the six murals plus one partial courtesy of the Sloan Museum of Discovery, Flint, MI

**Flint Journal; June 21, 1942 cover article © 1942 MLive Media Group/The Flint Journal

Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow shop photo courtesy of The Lackawanna Historical Society

[Poem titles were selected by this author and represent the gist of the ‘jingle.’]