Retail Turnovers That Everyone Hates

400 W Coldspring Avenue

Formerly, Video Americain (1989-2013). Video store for 70s art house, foreign movies, surrealist obscurities. Beautifully captured in this oral history. The staff competed with Blockbuster, worked snow day rushes, fiercely defended cherished VHS copies that got rented 4x a year (very High Fidelity tones).

Now a Smoothie King.

1 W Eager Street

Formerly the Chanticleer which hosted Billie Holliday, Dean Martin, et. al., then the Hippo, which was the heart of gay nightlife for decades. Don Davis, former owner of Grand Central, recalled that people used to line up to get inside 6 days a week. There are dozens of articles and blog posts about how much Hippo meant to its patrons as a community.

Now, a CVS pharmacy.

1400 E North Avenue

Baltimore’s most Kafkaesque adaptive reuse. Formerly, a Sears department store with vaunted glass openings.

Now, the Eastern District Courthouse. Everything was bricked up and paneled with aluminum siding so it looks like a low rent star destroyer. Much like Josef K, Baltimorans stand for trial in a former ladies swimsuit aisle.