BCPL History and Genealogy - Perry Hall - Perry Hall in the Early Twentieth Century.
Skip Navigation
Graphics Version

The navigation path to this page is: Home > Web Resources > History and Genealogy > Baltimore County History > Perry Hall Area History > Perry Hall in the Early Twentieth Century.

Perry Hall in the Early Twentieth Century
by David Marks
Historian, Perry Hall Improvement Association

As in all communities during the early Twentieth Century, Perry Hall was visited by traveling salesmen who roamed dusty back roads selling their wares. These hucksters would move up and down Belair Road, selling lightning rods, stoves, fruit trees, umbrellas, and other items to the country folk. One visitor, "Old Mose," carried a backpack full of tin cups, plates, and lunch pails. During the First World War, a frequent traveler was a peddler with a long beard. When some residents thought he was too young for his age, they contacted the authorities, who confirmed their suspicions. He was a young draft dodger.

Those travelers discovered a Perry Hall which was very much a frontier place, with large family farms and dense forests, dirt roads and scattered shops. Our community, in fact, would change very little until after the Second World War.

The Perry Hall post office was established on August 1st, 1877, when George Penn was appointed postmaster for the village. In those days, the postmaster's home or store served as the post office for the community, which meant that George Penn's general store at Belair Road and Schroeder Avenue processed mail for Perry Hall. The post office changed four times, eventually moving to William Beall's general store near Belair and Chapel Roads. Perry Hall's post office was discontinued in 1906, moved to Fullerton, then reestablished in 1961 when a branch opened in the new Perry Hall Shopping Center on Ebenezer Road. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Genevieve Buettner, who did not want Perry Hall to lose its identity and become a substation of Baltimore, the post office has continued, and today it is the only Perry Hall post office in the United States.

Mail delivery was done on horseback, and it was the only real way for one village to communicate with another. Telephone service was slow to come to the area. The 1902 Perry Hall telephone directory listed only twenty-six numbers. Five saloon owners, seven storekeepers, four farmers, the justice of the peace, an undertaker, and the community schoolteacher were among those with telephones.

Perry Hall was small but self-sufficient. Three blacksmith shops were located within sight of one another between Kahlston Road and Horn Avenue. Blacksmith shops were essential in the community. They built wagons, made horseshoes, and repaired farm machinery. Pillhofer's shop was located across from the present-day Valu Food supermarket. It was at Pillhofer's that a young German immigrant, Benedict Huber, learned his trade and later opened his own shop at Belair and Chapel Roads. Another blacksmith shop was DeGruchy's. This building still stands, it is now J.R.'s Mechanical Services, across from St. Michael's Lutheran Church.

The community had its share of taverns and inns. At the end of a long day in the fields, a trip to the local saloon was a nightly tradition for many. Local patrons were often joined by travelers on their way along Belair Road. In Perry Hall, popular hangouts included the present day Perry Inn and Pub, the Dengler hotel at Klausmeier Road, Magnolia Inn at Kahlston Road, and Waldman's Seven Mile House, a thirteen-room building since demolished for the Olde Forge development near St. Joseph's Church. There was also Bishop's Inn, which was located next to a tollgate at Belair and Joppa Roads. This later became Frank Goettner's butcher shop, and it has since been razed for a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.

Perry Hall's general stores sold groceries, dry goods, yeast, and kerosene oil for lamps and stoves. When they were good, children were given a penny to buy an ice cream cone or some candy at the store. Perhaps the most popular general store in Perry Hall was the little house built in 1883 by Henry Walter at Belair and Chapel Roads. It was affectionately known as "the little house by the side of the road," and was a merchandise store for almost ninety years. From 1900 to 1906, this was the Perry Hall post office. The store was demolished in 1979 when Mercantile Bank and Trust purchased the property and built their Perry Hall branch.

Although it was growing slowly, Perry Hall retained a rustic, small-town charm, its families mindful of the affairs of the community. Entertainment meant gathering together on the front porches of the farmhouses, where families would hold dances and young men would romance the girls from down the street. In 1928, though, Perry Hall's quiet character was changed by a nightclub which opened on Belair Road, right next to the general store at Chapel Road. Clarence Hassanger called his ballroom the "Crystal Palace" because of the many large crystal chandeliers hung from the ornate ceiling. The nightclub burned down in 1933.

Families regularly attended church, and when someone in the community died, almost all of the local families would come to the funeral. Local undertaker Frederick Lassahn would pack the body with ice, move it to a cemetery, and prepare for a funeral attended by most of Perry Hall.

Every New Year's Eve, the bells at St. Michael's Lutheran Church would welcome Perry Hall to the coming year. It was this way in 1901, when our community entered its third century of peaceful living.

This page is provided by the Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, Maryland USA.
The text version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
The graphics version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
You are welcome to provide feedback.