Spy Daybook: Change in Easton is the Only Constant

The face of commerce has always helped to define Easton. In yearbooks, photos and newspaper clippings, Easton’s business face has often been shorthand for Easton was.

Of course, this isn’t always easy. Throughout the decades, Easton has often been complacent, smug, and too comfortable to adequately serve its ever-changing population. We’ve had missed opportunities, some great businesses and some not-so-great businesses.

Despite the fact that some of the buildings are over a hundred years old, the stores themselves aren’t the constant; change is the constant.

As a lifelong resident and innocent bystander, I’ve seen many businesses come and go and I’m geeky enough to remember most of them.

These are the places where the faces of what Easton was and, in some cases, wanted to be, past and present.

Talbottown

It’s hard to believe that this structure was the heart of Easton’s shopping and commerce, but it was. In fact, in a town in the grips of segregation, its mission statement and creation was meant for anything but.

Talbottown had strong mid-century architecture and was just a pleasant place to be. The concept and shopping center was the brainchild of Easton native James Rouse, who, of course, later founded and crafted Columbia and Cross Keys as multi-racial areas.

In the early ‘70s I remember going into W.T. Grant’s with my mother and grandmother and getting my picture taken. I still have the pictures. Mamma Lucia’s was there, The Book and Cart Mart, Hess Apparel, the C&P Store and Price’s Music Stores. By the mid ‘70s stores like Geradi Bros and Royston Brothers were there too.

A small JC Penney moved in a little later and a nightclub called The Stockyard was there for a bit.

By the ‘80s, Talbottown lost its luster and became a grinding wheel despite later stores like Rustic Inn and Rudy’s Pizza and Pasta. During its 30th anniversary, Talbottown still saw itself at the top of the shopping center hegemony and was looking toward renovation.

Downtown

By the late ‘70s, the businesses started to leave. Reads, Traders, Atkinson’s, and Bata Shoes were off the street. McCrory’s remained in good shape with a full inventory and offered everything from clothes to housewares to records and tapes. Dollar General was also open opposite the Safeway.

Easton Plaza

This area is often forgotten. It’s been around since 1965 and was anchored by A&P and Drug Fair. In the early ‘70s Drug Fair still had a food counter, a clothes section, offered albums, 8 tracks and toys and ammunition next to one another. It was a different time.

A&P turned into Super Fresh in 1987. Chesapeake Bowl turned into Easton Bowling Center and than Easton Bowl. Regardless of the name it’s longest runnning business in all of the three “original” shopping centers in Easton.

Tred Avon Square

Tred Avon was promising at the beginning. Early on it was anchored by Acme, this new and improved Acme replaced the one on Dover Road near the old Trailways station.

Tred Avon’s architecture was in a newer style, it was a newer property. Early places included Vernon Powell, the Athlete, Tred Avon Movies, The Eggplant, Peppermint Stick, JoAnne Fabrics and of course Price’s Music Stores. Neal’s Pizza, Peebles, Benjamin’s, Radio Shack and Fashion Bug were also there.

My highlight of visiting Tred Avon Square was meeting a clearly distracted Al Bumbry for an autograph signing. For a bit, Tred Avon Square was a prime shopping destination and supplanted Talbottown.

For better or worse, those in the town still wanted to hold off on change and in 1981 Kmart was proposed and was denied. Having Kmart would have provided a lot of jobs and the merchandise that Easton often didn’t have. It would be a full decade until there was substantial movement for chain stores on Rt 50 and beyond.

What’s Downtown In The 80’s Not Much…

By 80s, there was little action for stores in downtown. Some good news? The town abandoned its Back to the 1800’s aesthetic to let McCrory’s stay and a nice record store Apple Records was in business for a few years. Traders and Bata were both gone by the early 90s.

In a 1986 interview with the Star Democrat, then Mayor George Murphy detailed Easton’s lack of retail plans and what kind of stores he wanted and nothing else.

“That’s going to be the dominant shopping for the downtown…small specialty shops.”

For many of that generation, that helped Easton cultivate its public face. To make matters worse, while Easton was busy weighing business decisions they made the horrible decision in 1986 to let the KKK meet on the courthouse steps. What?! Yep…

The courthouse of course was opposite where the businesses were, near the old Firestone and up the road from Crackerjacks. On that day Easton’s public face was mighty grim, certainly nothing to put in the Waterfowl Festival program.

Everything’s Great, Never Better. Is McCrory’s Still There?

Although the shopping centers didn’t have the KKK walking near them, they had their share of identity problems too.

At Easton Plaza, Drug Fair was tied in red tape and left under a cloud in 1990. Rite Aid moved into half of the remaining building. Around the same era. Giant was prevented from being built in the area.

Tred Avon had Acme at its prime and Price’s Music Center and JoAnn Fabrics both remained, Price’s closed in the early ‘90s.

Talbotown still had its great architecture and The Rustic Inn was there, Hess Apparel, and the Book and Cart Mart remained and was renamed the News Center.

By 1990, Easton had a population of 9,372, an increase of 24% from 1980. On the face of it, it seems small, but in layman’s terms, the face of Easton began to change where things had to get better, whether some wanted it or not.

In 1991, Wal-Mart arrived and anchored the Shoppes in Easton. Wal-Mart was basically everything “old Easton” tried to stop, a big department store with actually needed items, a cross section of people and no tolerance for the racial shenanigans that some of the stores in Easton often had partaken in.

A little later The Shoppes at Easton were built next to Wal-Mart and originally included Giant, Chesapeake Chicken, Dollar Tree, Fashion Bug and others.

The 90s represented a high point of sorts, the businesses on Main Street were sound. The Birdcages had viable stores like Rowens, Noah’s Ark and the Courthouse Square Deli.

The Armchair Book Shop was a promising bookstore. Flavaz Clothing Accessories was in the old Apple Records building on 26 N. Washington Street. Coffee East arrived in the late ‘90s.

The Avalon Theater of course had re-opened as a showcase for national acts like Richie Havens, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie among others.

Talbottown had a renovation in 1996 and still had the News Center and, early in the decade, the Rustic Inn and JCPenney.

By this point 2000’s, Easton was further renowned for being one of America’s Best Small Towns. The Waterfowl Festival continued to prosper. The era was also known for the Monty Alexander Festival. And of course the Academy of the Arts. There were also some losses too. Cherry’s Outdoor Store caught on fire in 2001 and Easton lost one of our best and respected businesses.

Who knew that Rowens had outdoor dining. Scossa went into the old Rowens Stationary in 2005. By this point, downtown Easton had abandoned its colonial or bust aesthetic and started to be a Mecca for restaurants. A few years later someone would come along and take it even further.

More Changes

Waterside Village arrived in Easton in 2008. Easton had changed so much that this area barely matters, it serves its purpose with little fanfare. Included are Target, Famous Footwear, Harris Teeter and Pet Smart.

Years earlier Food Lion appeared at Easton Marketplace and the shopping center was later anchored by a small Sears, JcPenney, Rainy Day Books and Time Out Bar and Grill.

By 2010 demographics changed in a transformative way. There was no looking back, the face of Easton was changing. Easton’s demographics exploded and the old zoning guardrails disappeared and money talked and was more important than set dressing for tourists and the Waterfowl Festival.

Who Owns Most Of Easton Maryland?

It’s not hearsay to say that Easton got a bit complacent around 2016. Things were fine, if not exceptional, so-so businesses moved into the same old buildings in an exercise of futility and musical chairs.

Someone else had another idea. The eccentric billionaire, philanthropist, and president of Beowulf Energy saw Easton, Paul Prager, fell in love with Easton and saw its potential beyond wooden ducks and secondhand simply southern decor.

In short order, Prager moved businesses into long dormant buildings that were all but set design for tourists. For example, Flying Cloud Booksellers set up shop in the old Cherry’s building.

By 2020, Easton’s population was over 17,000. Prager has upgraded Easton in ways unimaginable thirty years ago. But as we greeted his new businesses and were grateful for the employment opportunities they gave, Hill’s Drug Store left mainstreet after nearly 100 years to center its work at its Cynwood location. Change is the only constant; the only constant is change.

Jason Elias is a music journalist and a pop cultural historian