Stewart's (department store)

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Stewart's Department Store in Baltimore, Maryland, took its name in 1901 when Louis Stewart acquired the building of Posner's Department Store on the northeast corner of Howard and Lexington Streets. The chain was a founding member of Associated Dry Goods or ADG. It opened its first suburban store in 1953. The downtown store was closed in 1978 and suburban stores were converted to ADG's Caldor discount chain in 1983.

The 110,000-square-foot store on York Road was located at 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 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 in Rosedale, Maryland, in 1974.