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 under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
building located on
Howard Street at
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
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 and is a six-story brick and
terra cotta
Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...
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 develop ...
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 ar ...
style. It features an exuberant ornamental detail includes fluted
Ionic and
Corinthian 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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
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 a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
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
...
or ADG. While many of Baltimore's downtown department stores during the 19th and early 20th centuries were founded by
German-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...
immigrants, Stewart's was a non-Jewish owned department store, although the original founders Samuel and Elias Posner were Jewish.
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 r ...
in 1962,
Timonium Mall
Timonium is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020
census, it has a population of 10,458. Prior to 2010 the area was part of the Lutherville-Timonium CDP.
The Maryland State Fair is hel ...
in 1969,
Westview Shopping Center (an addition to a 1958 Mall) in 1969, and the store's final branch at
Golden Ring Mall
Golden means made of, or relating to gold.
Golden may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall
*Golden Cap, Dorset
*Golden Square, Soho, London
*Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...
in
Rosedale, Maryland
Rosedale is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 19,257 at the 2010 United States census.
History
The etymology of Rosedale remains uncertain and lacks definit ...
, 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 Ches ...
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 interiorPhoto of Resisterstown Road store exterior"Camellia Room" at Stewart & Co. Reisterstown Road"Chesapeake Room" restaurant at Stewart & Co. Reisterstown Road PlazaArticle 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
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