Baltimore stores
In 1857 Sam Hecht, Jr. opened a used furniture store on Aliceanna Street (near South Broadway) in Baltimore, Maryland.
By 1870 this venture had moved to a more auspicious location at 519 South Broadway where the name 'HECHT'S RELIABLE STORES' could be seen carved in foot-high letters into the granite cornice above the third floor (now demolished). Clothing was added to the lineup in 1879 under the name of Hecht's Reliable.[1] Shortly thereafter a carpet and matting establishment was opened in Baltimore at 310 West Lexington Street.
Over the front of the new store on Lexington Street was a sign reading 'Samuel Hecht, Jr. & Sons,' reflecting the development of the firm as a family enterprise. Four of Samuel's sons eventually joined him in business. They were, in order of age: Emanuel (Manny), Albert S., Alexander (Alex), and Moses (Mose) S. Hecht.
Emanuel Hecht joined his father in business in 1880. In 1886, he and his brother Albert were listed as partners with their father. Alex and Mose came into the firm later and contributed to its success. Samuel Hecht., Jr. died on February 7, 1907, in Baltimore. His sons, and later his grandsons, carried on the business.
The growth of the firm continued in Baltimore with the opening of the Hecht Brothers store on Baltimore and Pine streets in 1885, the Hub store in Baltimore in 1897, and Hecht Brothers at Howard and Franklin streets in 1926. Hecht stores were also established in New York City and Easton, Maryland. There was also a branch in Annapolis, Maryland. However, the most important move was into Washington, D.C.
Washington stores
The Hechts opened a store in Washington on March 20, 1896, which moved to a grand glass and marble store at the corner of 7th and F Streets Northwest, in Washington, D.C.'s downtown shopping district, in November 1925. Alexander Hecht directed the Washington part of the business for the family.[2]
Hecht's was the first store in Washington to offer national brands. It also boasted the first parking garage and first elevator. Its relatively open policies made it popular among African-Americans as well as the white populace.[3]
A tour of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings, intended to rally support for the Allied cause in World War II and the purchase of war bonds, premiered at the store in 1943.[4]
In July 1951, a mixed race group began to picket outside the store, protesting racial segregation in the store's cafeteria. The offending policy was changed in January of the following year.[5]
Into the suburbs
After World War II, Hecht Company began to build new stores in the suburbs around Baltimore and Washington. Outside the center of Baltimore, Hecht's opened a store in Northwood in September 1954, followed by another in Edmondson Village in October 1956, and a third in the then-new Reisterstown Road Plaza in January 1962.
In 1947, they opened a large three-story department store in Silver Spring, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. The wisdom of this move was initially questioned; however, within a few years, more room was needed. A fourth and fifth story were added to the building in 1950 at the corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Place. In 1955, The Fenton Street side of the building was expanded all the way down to Colesville RD. That store was closed in October of 1987 and was converted and expanded into City Place Mall, which opened in 1992 and which is now known as Ellsworth Place. The second suburban store opened on November 2, 1951, at Parkington in Arlington County, Virginia. It cost $6.5 million to construct the 300000 sqft store and it was the largest suburban department store on the east coast at that time.[7] On November 2, 1958, Maryland Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin ceremonially opened the third suburban D.C. Hecht Company store at Prince George's Plaza in Hyattsville.[8] Gov. J. Millard Tawes
May Company
The Hecht chain was acquired by the May Company in 1959. At this time, the historic 1924 Bernheim-Leader store on the corner of Howard and Lexington Streets in Baltimore was renamed Hecht's, becoming its flagship store in the Baltimore area. It closed in 1988, one of the last department stores to remain in the downtown district. In 1998, it was declared a city landmark, and has since been renovated into apartments owned by Southern Management.[10][11][12]
Many other stores acquired later were also rebranded as Hecht's. In 1990, Hecht's acquired four Miller & Rhoads stores in Virginia.[13] That same year, the May company acquired the Thalhimers chain from Carter Hawley Hale Stores.[13]
