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

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 building located at Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Architecture

The Stewart's Department Store structure was designed in 1899 by Charles E. Cassell

Charles E. Cassell

- Biography :He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and trained as a naval architect. He received a degree in engineering from the University of Virginia at age 15. During the Civil War he served as a captain in the engineers corps, under General George Pickett of the Confederate States Army. After...

 and is a six story brick and terra cotta

Terra cotta

Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 steel-framed building detailed in a highly ornate Italian Renaissance Revival style. It features an exuberant ornamental detail includes fluted Ionic

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

 and Corinthian

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...

 columns, lion heads, caryatids, wreaths, garlands, cartouches, and an elaborate bracketed cornice.

History

This building served as the flagship store for Stewart’s

Stewart's (department store)

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...

 Baltimore operations and anchored Baltimore’s premier downtown retail location at Lexington and Howard Streets..

Stewart's Department Store Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1999.

External links

• Stewart's Department Store, Baltimore City, including photo from 1998, at Maryland Historical Trust