Businesses Past
Hesson’s Department Store
by Richard D. L. Fulton
Daniel J. (D.J.) Hesson, a prominent merchant, banker, and politician in Taneytown, established the D.J. Hesson Department Store in 1903, according to Google AI, on the northwest corner of the town square (1 York Street).
Hesson served as a president of Taneytown Savings Bank, and he had also operated the Taneytown Garage Company, and the Key Grain and Feed Company. Additionally, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Taneytown Grain Company, according to his obituary published in the March 6, 1941, edition of The (Baltimore) Evening Sun.
Hesson served a term in the Maryland House of Delegates and another term in the Maryland State Senate.
According to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for the Taneytown Historic District, “The Hesson Store presents a concise depiction of early 20th century commercial design, with its corner entrance highlighted with ornamental concrete block, its first story dentil cornice, and its second-story bracket cornice with parapet.”
The Hesson Department Store was one of various Taneytown businesses that had experienced a rash of retail thefts during the week of August 20, 1917, when the store was broken into and robbed on August 23.
According to an article that was published in the Catoctin Clarion on August 30, 1917, there had been shoes, clothing, and money stolen from the store. On August 24, The Democrat Advocate had reported that entry had been gained by one or more of the suspects by their breaking the glass in a rear window, thereby allowing the suspect or suspects to reach in and unlock the window, and then leaving by the back door.
If the 1970s was culturally renowned for anything beyond the Vietnam war protests, Watergate and bell-bottom pants, it was the rebellion against the so-called “blue laws,” which had restricted what businesses could sell or not sell (primarily on Sundays).
For example, in some states, stores could sell hardback books, but not softback books on Sundays; and in some cases back then, various numbers of employees would either be allowed, or not allowed to work on the Sabbath.
As the anti-blue law movement spread across Maryland, blue laws that had been established in Baltimore City, and in Prince George’s, Montgomery, and Dorchester counties “had been repealed or ruled unconstitutional,” according to an article published in the November 26, 1979, issue of the Cumberland Evening Times.
Blue laws, however, still remained on the books in Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, Ann Arundel, and Frederick counties.
Management at the Hesson Department Store decided to challenge the validity of the blue laws and opened their store on Sunday, November 25. Subsequently arrested were Larry Baughman, vice president for the Pennsylvania-based Hess chain, “who had come to the store dressed as Santa Claus,” Scott Ratarski, Hesson store manager, and Rich De Paulo, assistant store manager.
Their arrests were still pending as of November 26.
Maryland officially repealed its statewide general retail Sunday blue laws on June 29, 1987, according to Google AI, thereby making Sunday shopping legal across most of the state, but some counties have continued to retain some form of blue laws, especially regarding automobile and alcoholic beverage sales.
Hesson retired from his business in 1940, passing away in 1941. The department store was then subsequently converted into a sewing factory on the second floor, while the first floor became the Taneytown Theater (which, itself, had closed in 1954), according to the Taneytown Heritage & Museum Association website.
After reportedly having stood abandoned for a good number of years, it appears that the old building may be having a rebound, as per an article that appeared in the October 13, 2025, edition of The Baltimore Sun.
According to the newspaper, a Bollinger couple was in the process of “gutting and renovating the dilapidated building—having been known historically as the Hesson Department Store, Taneytown Movie Theater, and Leonardo’s Restaurant…”
The Sun further noted that the couple also plan to bring back the property’s original name, Bunker Hill, and stated that Taneytown Mayor Christopher Miller had reported that $23,207 in Community Legacy Grant Fund had been acquired with which to reimburse the Bollingers for the renovation.
Photograph of the Taneytown Theatre from the 2019 Taneytown Heritage and Museum Association Christmas ornament.
Source: Taneytown Heritage and Museum Association website
Hesson’s Department Store building as it appears today. Source: Google Street Views
