6-22-2026 9:34am

Eastpoint Closing

Dundalk's Eastpoint Mall To Permanently Close This Summer: Report

The Eastpoint Mall in Dundalk will be permanently shutting down on Aug. 31, according to reports. Once home to penguins (Hochschild-Kohn department store), monkeys (Hess Shoe Store) and iconic stores like Hutzlers and Horn and Horn Buffet, Eastpoint is in its 70th year.

Residents who work at the mall told The Baltimore Sun that they'd learned about the closure through word of mouth. One store owner said she learned about the development from a store inspector who visited in mid-May.

The mall's management team has not officially disclosed whether the shopping center is shutting down.

Eastpoint Mall, formerly Eastpoint Shopping Center, is a one-level regional enclosed shopping mall located in Baltimore County. Eastpoint Mall was one of Baltimore's first shopping centers and has been serving the community since 1956.

Eastpoint Mall is anchored by JCPenney, Burlington, Gabe's, and Black Friday Outlet. The mall features over 120 specialty shops, restaurants, and services including Foot Locker, Bath & Body Works, AT&T Wireless, Shoe City, Chick-fil-A, The Children's Place, McDonald's, Shoe Show, Cricket Wireless, and Rue21.

History

In the current location of the mall was an open mall with outdoor walk ways connecting it which included stores such as Hutzler's and Hochschild Kohn's department store. In the 1970s, this open mall was enclosed, thereby making the location the present enclosed mall.

JCPenney came to the mall in 1974. In 1981, a Record Bar store opened at the mall. The Hutzler's store closed in 1984] and became a food court in 1991, while Sears was also added. Value City and Value City Furniture later split the old Hochschild Kohn's building.

Ames was also added as an anchor, later becoming Steve & Barry's. Steve & Barry's closed in 2008, becoming DSW and Shoppers World in 2010. DSW since closed in early 2016. The mall's fountain was based on Robert Woodward's El Alamein Fountain in Sydney. A half-dandelion version was at Towson Town Center. On November 2, 2017, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 63 stores nationwide. The store closed in January 2018.

Remembering Christmastime at the Old Eastpoint Shopping Center

When penguins, monkeys, x-ray shoe measurements and Santa Claus in the basement made for a memorable Christmastime adventure.

Mark Birkelien,Neighbor

Dec 17, 2010

There was a time when the local, tired, poor huddled masses gathered together outside in frigid weather and took simple pleasure in watching penguins swim and play.

I'm talking about the Eastpoint Shopping Center before it succumbed to early 1970s modernism and was converted to the enclosed Eastpoint Mall we know today.

This was the old, outdoor Eastpoint Shopping Center that was anchored on one end by Hutzler's and on the other by Hochschild-Kohn, each founded in Baltimore, in 1858 and 1897, respectively.

When I was a kid a trip to Eastpoint was a real event, not only at Christmas, but any time.

Penguins were on year-round display in a corner window at Hochschild's, and real-life monkeys could be found gallivanting around at the Hess Shoe Store.

And yes, they actually X-rayed your feet at Hess' ("they" being the shoe salesmen, not the monkeys) with a fluoroscope, even though a simple Brannock Device would have done the job just as well and did not cause a skin condition known as erythema.

The penguins and the monkeys were must-see TV, but during the Christmas season, if you wanted to see the head honcho you went to Hutzler's, specifically to the lower level or "basement" as some called it.

That's where Santa Claus could be found – thrilling, boring or scary depending on the age of the kids who waited in line for what seemed like hours just to reel off their 15-second wish list.

I guess you could put my younger brother into the "Scaring the Hell Out Of" category, since he reacted to Santa's lap the way a worm reacts to a hot shovel, except thankfully you can't hear a worm screaming, "Maaahhh!" all the way down at the Edgemere Moose.

You could practically see my brother's tonsils when the pictures came in the mail a week later.

Personally, I liked talking to Santa, because who else is going to say, "Alrighty then, young man," when you ask them to bring you a Hess monkey for Christmas?

Hochschild's went out of business in 1983 and Hutzler's left the mall in 1984. I'm sure everyone in the area knows the mall anchors are now Sears and JC Penney.

Information on Hochschild's seems to be scarce, but local author Michael J. Lisicky pays tribute to Hutzler's in his book, "Hutzler's: Where Baltimore Shops."