BALTIMORE — A corner spot that has been a grocery store for people in the Butchers Hill area for 100 years is getting a reboot and reopening.
Thomas Carpentier says he feels the legacy must continue, showing that nothing is ever too far gone, to bring back.
When you look at the property at 25 North Chester Street, you may just see the typical boarded-up windows and run-down old building. But to Carpentier, it's so much more than that; it's history.
"I saw what Baltimore once was in early 1900s, and I saw the love and passion and the pride people had in their properties,” said Thomas Carpentier, owner of the building.
Located on the corner of North Chester Street and East Fairmount Avenue, this building brings an early 20th-century feel to Baltimore.
"From the research that I’ve done, it appears the property was built in 1900,” said Carpentier.
People in the area have known the property as a grocery store for over 100 years.
"There was a Jewish man, Berel Mermelstein, who bought it around the 1920s. He was a butcher; Mermelstein Meats was here,” said Carpentier.
Carpentier says records show that the grocery store stayed in that family, getting renamed once, until it was sold in the 1970s.
"That's when there was a Korean couple that purchased the property around the late 70's and they operated their store as Jo's Grocery and Carryout,” said Carpentier.
It’s been that way ever since.
Carpentier says he would frequent the store, chatting with the long-term owners.
"I got to know them, and they mentioned that they are kind of looking to sell, so it just seemed like an amazing opportunity,” said Carpentier.
He and his brothers, along with a friend, jumped at the chance to continue the grocery store legacy. They bought the property about a year ago, and they are rehabilitating it, with a renter already lined up to open a grocery store in the exact location once they finish construction.
And although the front sign will no longer read “Jo's Grocery and Carryout,” the tradition will live on.
Carpentier wants to keep the curb appeal and desire that existed in the early 1900s. He says they will rent out the upper part of the building as apartments. They are looking at having everything completed within the next month.
