Stewart's Department Store, also known as the Posner Building, is a historic

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

building located on

Howard Street Howard Street may refer to: *Howard Street (Baltimore), a major street in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland **Howard Street Tunnel fire, a disaster that struck the freight railroad tunnel under Baltimore's Howard Street in 2001 *Howard Street (Sheffield ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Catholic Relief Services Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 ...

is currently headquartered there.

Architecture

The Stewart's Department Store structure was designed in 1899 by

Charles E. Cassell Charles Emmett Cassell (April 26, 1838 – August 29, 1916) was a Baltimore, Maryland-based architect. Biography He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and trained as a naval architect. He received a degree in engineering from the University of Vi ...

and is a six-story brick and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

steel-framed building Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

detailed in a highly ornate

Italian Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ...

style. It features an exuberant ornamental detail includes fluted Ionic and

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns, lion heads, caryatids, wreaths, garlands, cartouches, and an elaborate bracketed cornice. The Stewart's Department Store Building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1999. The downtown flagship store was closed in 1978.

History

Stewart's began in 1901 when Louis Stewart acquired the building of Posner's Department Store on the northeast corner of

Howard Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

and Lexington Streets. The chain was a founding member of

Associated Dry Goods Associated Dry Goods Corporation (ADG) was a chain of department stores that merged with May Department Stores in 1986. It was founded in 1916 as an association of independent stores called American Dry Goods, based in New York City. History T ...

or ADG. Stewart's opened its first suburban store in 1953. The store on York Road was located near the city/county line. Built on two levels and surrounded by parking, the store was designed to “blend into the suburban area around it.” The design included broad expanses of glass from floor to ceiling, “screened by Fiberglas curtains containing 600 square yards of materials.” Elaborate murals of Homewood House, the Washington Monument and the Federal Hill skyline decorated walls in the store, and a restaurant with a Chesapeake Bay theme became a destination for northern shoppers. Four other stores followed in the 1960s and 1970s. They included

Reisterstown Road Plaza The Reisterstown Road Plaza, usually known since its inception simply as ''"The Plaza,"'' is a shopping center and mall located near the Reisterstown Plaza Metro Subway Station. Originally built as an outdoor shopping center (with two parallel rows ...

in 1962, Timonium Mall in 1969, Westview Shopping Center (an addition to a 1958 Mall) in 1969, and the store's final branch at

Golden Ring Mall The Centre at Golden Ring, formerly the Golden Ring Mall is a power center and former mall in Rosedale, Maryland. History Golden Ring Mall The mall was first announced by developers Melvin, Simon & Associates in April 1972, with Stewart's, Hecht ...

Rosedale, Maryland Rosedale is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 19,257 at the 2010 United States Census. History The origin of the name Rosedale is ...

, in 1974. Suburban stores were converted to ADG's

Caldor Caldor, Inc. was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett. Referred to by many as the Bloomingdale's of discounting, Caldor grew from a second story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Chest ...

discount chain in 1983.

References

External links

*, including photo from 1998, at Maryland Historical Trust
Stewart's – Explore Baltimore Heritage

* ttp://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?gottscho:131:./temp/~ammem_sVcK::displayType=1:m856sd=gsc:m856sf=5a28368:@@@mdb=gottscho "Photo of Reisterstown Road store interior
Photo of Resisterstown Road store exterior

"Camellia Room" at Stewart & Co. Reisterstown Road

"Chesapeake Room" restaurant at Stewart & Co. Reisterstown Road Plaza

Article about department stores in Baltimore
Buildings and structures in Baltimore Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore Commercial buildings completed in 1899 Downtown Baltimore Renaissance Revival architecture in Maryland Italian Renaissance Revival architecture in the United States Department stores on the National Register of Historic Places 1899 establishments in Maryland Retail companies established in 1901 Defunct department stores based in Maryland Retail companies disestablished in 1983 Defunct companies based in Baltimore {{BaltimoreCityMD-NRHP-stub