This abandoned building was once the finest Department Store in Baltimore

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Designed by Baldwin and Pennington, one of Maryland's most important architectural firms of the period, the Hutzler Brothers Palace Building was upon its completion in 1888 the largest and most elegant department store structure in Baltimore's retail center. With its richly ornamented facade of carved limestone and pressed copper, the building presents an outstanding example of Romanesque eclectic design, and no finer example of this late 19th-century style exists in Baltimore. Reflecting the growing importance of the Hutzler firm to the commercial community of Baltimore, the south bay was added in 1924 as a compatible expansion of the retail sales space, and the ground floor facade was redesigned in 1931 to conform with the Art Moderne detailing of a new facility which adjoined the Palace on the north. This 1931 remodeling, part of a major expansion program dubbed "Greater Hutzler's'" illustrates the vitality and confidence of the firm in spite of the economic adversities of the Great Depression. The Hutzler Brothers Company was founded at this location in 1858. The highly successful firm was among the pioneers of department store merchandising in Baltimore, and instituted a number of progressive policies regarding pricing, service, and employee benefits in the late 19^th century which contributed to its continuing prosperity. In continuous operation on the same site from 1858 until 1981, when the Palace Building was temporarily closed for renovation, the Hutzler firm is believed to hold the record for longevity in an original location among American department stores.

Moses Hutzler, father of the three original Hutzler brothers, emigrated to America in 1838 and began his mercantile career near Frederick, Maryland. He later moved to Baltimore and started a store on Eutaw Street where he remained in business until 1875. In 1858 Moses Hutzler gave his name and credit to his son Abram to open a retail shop at Howard and Clay Streets where the current Palace Building stands. Shortly thereafter, with his brother Charles, Abram opened a wholesale business on Baltimore Street and the running of the retail establishment fell to the youngest brother, David. After the Civil War the retail end of the business grew so rapidly that by the eighties the wholesale operation was closed and all brothers concentrated on the Howard Street store. At this time Hutzler's instituted basic policies that proved instrumental to the company's success through the years to the present. These policies covered employees' welfare, guarantees of quality and dependability, and delivery and customer special services. Hutzler's "one-price policy," announced in 1868, was a progressive step at a time when most retail transactions still involved haggling to arrive at the final price of an item; in charging all customers the same marked price, Hutzler's adopted the marketing strategy of the most avant-garde Paris and New York department stores of the day. Hutzler's was the first Baltimore department store to offer a delivery service, providing delivery by horsedrawn wagon in 1874 (and employing the first electric delivery truck in the city in 1899).

By the late eighties, business was so improved that the brothers decided to erect the current Palace Building to accommodate the expansion. The city's leading architects, Baldwin and Pennington, were selected to do the job. E, Francis Baldwin (1837-1916) attended public school in Baltimore and then studied architecture and engineering at Troy's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He formed a partnership with Josias Pennington in 1883 that lasted until his death; this partnership was responsible for many of Baltimore's most notable late 19^th and early 20^th century buildings. In addition to the Maryland Club (1893) in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the Fidelity Building (1893), Mount Royal Station (1896) executed in rusticated granite and Romanesque in style, Baltimore City College Building (1895) at Howard and Centre Streets, and the Maryland Trust Building at Calvert and Redwood Streets, this firm also designed numerous churches and religious institutions. For many years Baldwin was the architect for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for which he designed warehouses, stations and related buildings. His stations at Point of Rocks and Oakland, Maryland are best known today. In the design of the 1888 Hutzler Brothers Palace Building, the architects used an architectural vocabulary that included elaborate surface ornamentation. This retail building is an important and atypical early statement in the history of this firm, which tended to specialize in large office buildings, transportation facilities, and ecclesiastical and institutional structures.

The Hutzler Brothers' business continued to expand during the next three decades. In 1924 the decision was reached to add a fourth bay to the south of the Palace Building in a style closely matching the original. In 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, Hutzler's again led the business community in expressing faith in the city and launched a major expansion program, dubbed "Greater Hutzler's." An additional five-story building was constructed to the north of the Palace in an Art Moderne style. The first floor of the Palace was remodeled during this expansion. The black granite veneer remains today as a symbol of this last alteration to the original building.

The Hutzler Family mercantile business remained in continuous operation at the same location from 1858 until the Palace building was temporarily closed for renovation in 1981; this is believed to be the longest continuous period of operation on the original site in the history of American department stores. Upon completion of the renovation, Hutzler's reopened only the ground floor of the Palace to retail shoppers.

By the end of the 1980s the store had closed.

Building Description

The Hutzler Brothers Palace Building at 210-218 North Howard Street in the 19th-century commercial center of Baltimore, Maryland was constructed in 1888, with a south bay added in 1924. The original Romanesque eclectic facade is three bays wide, five stories in height, constructed of limestone with pressed copper trim to the design of Baldwin and Pennington, one of Baltimore's most important architectural firms of the period. The ground floor facade was redesigned in 1931 to conform with the Art Moderne detailing of the "Greater Hutzlers" building constructed against the north wall of the Palace. The ground floor facade is faced with polished black granite, with rectangular show windows surmounted by transoms with cast-bronze screens flanking the recessed central entrance; the entrance, which consists of a pair of aluminum revolving doors, is richly embellished with Art Moderne ribs, fins, sunrise motifs, and a stylized caduceus below the logo "Hutzler Brothers Co. 1858-1888" and a seated figure of Justice, the firm's trademark. Above the ground floor, the original facade remains intact. The first and third bays have a polygonal projecting bay window on the second and third floors, with a spandrel between the floors sheathed in embossed copper with a geometric foliated design and the Hutzer coat of arms; the fourth floor has full-width semicircular arches holding quadripartite windows. A heavy belt course with Sullivanesque carved ornament spans the building between the fourth and fifth floors. At the fifth-floor level, four 1/1 sash windows are arrayed in ribbon-like fashion in each bay. The central bay is defined by trefoil columns running from the second through the fourth floors, with a carved band at the third-floor level using Sullivanesque foliated details and masks. The area below this belt course has a full-width horseshoe arch the face of which repeats the foliated carving. The third and fourth floors in the central bay are a two-story high triple arcaded gallery, with segmental compound openings in the upper part and rectangular openings below. The fourth-floor windows have round-headed 1/1 sash, the third floor 1/1 sash with operating transoms above. The parapet wall above the central bay is a richly carved pediment emblazoned with a large seated figure of Justice in high relief. Block letters on a linen fold scroll spell out "Hutzler Brothers." The south bay, added in 1924, was remodeled on the ground floor in 1931, and repeats the polished granite facing appearing on the main section, plus the addition of a recessed plate door. On the upper stories, the detailing of the original building is repeated here. The windows in each bay are triple, with heavy frames and recessed transom; window detailing conforms to that of the corresponding floors of the original building. The interior of the Palace Building has been considerably altered throughout the twentieth century, most recently in 1976, and no evidence of the original fabric remains.

The Hutzler Brothers Palace Building at 210-218 North Howard Street in the 19th-century commercial center of Baltimore, Maryland was constructed in 1888, with a south bay added in 1924. The original Romanesque eclectic facade is three bays wide, five stories in height, constructed of limestone with pressed copper trim to the design of Baldwin and Pennington, one of Baltimore's most important architectural firms of the period. The ground floor facade was redesigned in 1931 to conform with the Art Moderne detailing of the "Greater Hutzlers" building constructed against the north wall of the Palace. The ground floor facade is faced with polished black granite, and repeats the show window details of the 1931 construction in the first and third bays. These windows are rectangular, divided into two vertical lights with heavy mullions, and have cast bronze screens covering the horizontal transom-like windows above the show windows. The main entrance is recessed into the center bay using splayed walls at the outer face, and a stepped soffit. The details of the entrance are duplicates of the entrance to the 1931 structure, with a pair of aluminum revolving doors separated with a vertical window panel. The semi-circular door enclosures are topped with ribbed aluminum panels and the flat wall surface above is decorated with horizontal segmental fins, emphasizing the cylindrical form of the doors. The space above the panel that separates the doors has a stylized caduceus, and the entire upper part of the wall is framed by bronze panels with sunrise motifs. The side walls of the recessed entrance have single, rectangular lighted show windows. The logo "Hutzler Brothers Co. 1858-1888" in Art Moderne typeface, and a bas-relief seated figure of Justice, the firm's trademark, are etched into the polished granite surface above the entrance.

Above the ground floor, the original facade remains intact. The first and third bays are identical in design. The second and third floors have a polygonal projecting bay window, with large single lights of glass framed with copper-clad round columns and transom bars. Each window has a full-width transom, and the spandrel between the two floors is sheathed with embossed copper decorated with a stamped geometric foliated design and the Hutzler Brothers coat-of-arms in relief. The slender columns run full height to the roof of the bay unit, terminating in cushioned floral capitals. The copper cornice of the bay units has a double row of dentiles below a cyma-reversa crown mold. The fourth floor of both bays have full-width semi-circular arches with quadripartite wood framed windows, fixed in the outer sections, 1/1 double hung in the two center parts. The face of the arches have radiating voussoirs without keystones and the ashlar limestone-faced spandrels have bas-relief medallions with interlocking basketweave inserts. A hooded heavy belt course runs the full width of the building between the fourth and fifth floors, with a label mold and roll mold below a heavily carved frieze and a deep ovolo bed mold and cornice. The frieze is carved with Sullivanesque floral and geometric designs and three masks. The design of the fifth floor is constant for all three bays, consisting of rows of four 1/1 double hung sash arranged in ribbon-like fashion within each bay, below a heavy lintel made up of alternating rusticated and dressed limestone blocks. The windows in each row are separated by slender stone columns with cushioned floral caps and molded bases. The bays are divided by additional rows of three columns of similar design.

The high parapet wall in the two outside bays has rectangular pedestals at the edges, with carved floral inserts and carved antefixae. The frieze is composed of alternating squares and circles each with bas-relief floral designs carved within the margins.

The central bay is defined by trefoil columns running from the second through the fourth floors, with a carved band at the third-floor level and carved cushioned capitals below the belt course between the fourth and fifth floors. The carved band at the third-floor level continues across the full bay, creating a belt course of exceptional design, using carved Sullivanesque floral details and masks. The area below this belt course has a full-width horseshoe arch, the face of which and the spandrels repeat the exceptional stone floral carvings. The margins of the spandrels and the extrado and soffit of the arch are unenriched. The existing steel industrial sash is a 1931 replacement of the original wood-framed tripartite sash. The third and fourth floors in the central bay are a two-story high triple arcaded gallery, with segmental compound openings in the upper part and rectangular openings below. The arcade is divided with three three-part columns with floral caps and molded necking. The fourth-floor windows have round-headed wood 1/1 double hung sash, the third-floor 1/1 double-hung sash with operating transoms above. The spandrel is decorated with recessed squares enclosing pyramidal bosses.

The parapet wall above the central bay is a classical pediment with raking cornice and returns, supported by 11 scroll consoles and outlined at the roof line with tall pyramidal pinnacles. The richly carved pediment is emblazoned with a large seated figure of Justice in high relief holding a banner proclaiming her as the store's trademark. Block letters on a linen fold scroll spell out "Hutzler Brothers."

The south bay, added in 1924, was remodeled on the ground floor in 1931, and repeats the polished granite facing with large show window and cast bronze grille over the flat transom-like upper window appearing on the main section, plus the addition of a recessed plate door. On the upper stories, the carved belt course at the third floor of the original building is repeated here, as is the flat spandrel with pyramidal bosses at the fourth-floor level and the carved frieze at the fifth. The parapet wall repeats the pyramidal detailing of the fourth-floor band. The windows in each. bay are triple, with heavy frames and recessed transom. The windows in the fourth floor are decorated by the addition of the same columns used in the fourth floor of the central bay. The fifth-floor window details are identical to those used at this level in the original building.

The interior of the Palace Building has been considerably altered throughout the twentieth century, and no evidence of the original fabric remains to view.

Main facade looking west (1982)

Howard Street entrance showing 1931 black granite veneer, entrance doors, display window and logo with date looking west (1982)

2^nd floor arch above entrance in center bay of original building showing stone Ornamental detail and copper detail between 2^nd and 3^rd floor bay windows of outer bays of a building looking west (1982)

3^rd and 4^th floors of center and southern bays of original building looking west (1982)

1924 addition showing stone detail in belting course between 2^nd and 3^rd floors, 3^rd floor windows and lower section of 4^th floor windows looking west (1982)

4^th and 5^th floors and parapet of 1924 addition and southern bay of original building showing elaborate ornamental stone work looking west (1982)

4^th and 5^th floors of 1888 building showing pediment over the center bay with the bas relief figure of justice looking west (1982)