User talk:Joel Hutzler

I wanted to submit a more complete article on Hutzler's (Hutzler Brothers Department Store, Baltimore MD) There are no errors in the "Stub" article now in Wikipedia. I can document all the statements in the current stub and in the article I am trying to submit. Are the editors interested?

The story of Hutzler's is one of a 132 year “family dynasty” started by an immigrant from Bavaria. Moses Hutzler arrived in Baltimore in 1838 with his wife, four daughters and two year old son Abraham. He had planned to continue overland to join some cousins who had established themselves in Richmond, VA, a few years earlier and who spoke some English. His wife, Caroline, was ill and unable to travel. (Two more sons were born in Baltimore, Charles and David.)

Ultimately, after some tough times, he became a peddler. On a Monday morning, in Baltimore, he would load up his wagon and then sell his wares along the frontier, mostly between New Market and Frederick, roughly 40 miles west of the city, returning home for the weekend. Moses established several small, short-lived stores in these towns.

After almost 20 years “on the road” Moses ended his travels and established a small store on Eutaw Street in Baltimore. Later he established a second store at Howard and Clay Streets for Abraham (Abram), under the banner M. Hutzler & Son. This store grew and grew and grew. However, the Civil War intervened and the two older boys were forced to flee to western Pennsylvania to avoid being held as hostages or being conscripted to fight against their neighbors. David, the youngest brother, too young to be conscripted, was left to care for the store and the five ladies.

After the war ended the older brothers organized a wholesale business on Baltimore Street, which was owned by all three brothers. David continued operation of the retail store. By the early 1880s the volume of retail business was great enough to require expansion into two adjacent buildings. The brothers then sold the wholesale business and devoted their energies to the retail business. In 1887–1888 the older buildings were razed and replaced with the Palace Building, a much finer, more upscale building designed by the prominent architects Baldwin and Pennington. The business continued to grow and additional adjacent buildings were acquired.

In 1952, after nearly 100 years of operation exclusively at its original location, Hutzler's built a branch store in Towson, just north of the city. Shortly thereafter stores were opened called Westview, Eastpoint, and Southdale. At the peak of Hutzler’s growth there were eleven stores. In addition to building several new ones, the firm had also acquired and renamed three ailing Hochschild Kohn branches in Baltimore. Several Sara Fredericks stores and boutiques in other cities were also added. All the Hutzler stores were in greater Baltimore except for one in Salisbury, on Maryland’s eastern shore. Choosing appropriate names for buildings and for departments was a Hutzler art form.

The earliest record of the M. Hutzler & Son store is an ad misplaced in the Baltimore Sun, April 20, 1858. No record remains of Moses’s purchase of the store from Elkan Bamberger, his son in law, but the purchase was thought have taken place during the previous month. Elkan’s infant son, Louis, many years later, became one of the three founders of Bamberger’s in Newark NJ, arguably the East Coast’s finest department store. He also owned pioneer radio station WOR, the country’s second commercial station after KDKA in Pittsburgh.

Hutzler’s (for many years Hutzler Brothers Co.) was unique in that it was owned and operated by direct descendants of the founder for the first 119 years. However, during a four-year period after the death of David, Hutzler’s was headed by the store manager, Henry Oppenheimer, one of David’s sons-in-law, rather than a direct descendant of Moses. Many members of the family worked in the store, some as executives, some as regular employees, some as part timers or pinch-hitters. Innovations such as the “one price policy” superseded bargaining for a better price, as is still done in many parts of the world today. Above all, Hutzler’s was a deluxe service store with rapid delivery and liberal exchange policies. The Hutzler family knew their customers and treated them like extended family. Non-family employees were treated the same way. The goods were the best available. The overall theme was to provide a comfortable place to shop and “make a full day of shopping.” There was a garage (where you could park and simultaneously get the car washed while you shopped), a bakery, several restaurants, (The Colonial Tearoom was outstanding and The Quixie was unique, fast and popular), soda fountains, a beauty shop, etc. The real Santa Claus held court each December in Toytown. As Mark Cohen wrote in Baltimore Magazine, “Hutzler’s wasn’t a department store. Hutzler’s was a dowager aunt from the side of the family with class, who made you feel like Little Lord Fauntleroy whenever you went to her house.”

It might be of parenthetical interest that all seven of Moses’s children were examples of the American dream. They arrived in the USA with little more than the clothes on their backs, unable to speak the language. All seven prospered! There are now approximately 350 descendants of Moses and Caroline. Virtually all have been upright, substantial citizens. Moses was widowed in 1876 and died in 1889 at the age of 88.

The dynasty ended abruptly when CEO Charles G. Hutzler, III died in his office on the morning of June 28, 1977. He was a great great grandson of Moses Hutzler and was only 46 years old. Operation of the store then passed to outsiders. W. Austin Kenly, the store Treasurer, became CEO. In 1983 financial control of Hutzler’s was purchased by a group of investors that included Angelo “Andy” Arena, Edward McCormick Blair and some of their friends. On June 1, 1983 Andy Arena became CEO and Austin Kenly left the firm. Later, Andy’s former associate, Gloria Johnson became president.

The new management had high hopes and grandiose plans but could do little to stem the downward spiral of the business. Improvements designed to bring the operation back to its original luster only succeeded in depleting the treasury. Already in trouble from years of overexpansion, aging management and tough chain-store competition, the store closed in January 1990.

Joel G. D. Hutzler, Jr. 					 16 January 2007 A great grandson of Moses Hutzler