PIKESVILLE, Md. — Tom Fekete and Dan Brody walk with WMAR-2 News around some centuries-old structures in Pikesville.
"Over here the Eastern Savings Bank was originally the site of the burnt house tavern, says Brody, a Pikesville business owner.
"Ten miles from the city, where people would come over here to stop in and then go off to either other farmlands. It was super popular back in the 1700s."
This is an area that has transformed over and over through the years.
"Most of the businesses were small, uh, shall we call mom-and-pop kind of thing? And this is where the people from the suburbs came to do their shopping," says Fekete, President of Pikesville Improvement Corporation.
The Pikesville Improvement Corporation is looking to take a long view to maintain the special character of the city.
"The development of the Pikesville armory will have a great impact on Pikesville."
With a fifteen-million-dollar investment by the state, the historic armory is expected to open as an indoor-outdoor recreation and senior center by 2028.
In upper Pikesville, the Pikesville Improvement Corporation is considering things like a promenade, arts fairs, and concerts, giving it a village feel to make it a place to spend time.
"Parking's a problem in Pikesville," says Fekete.
Long considered a pass-through community to Baltimore, the Pikesville Improvement Corporation is looking to make it a place people want to stop for a bit.
"If you can't get a parking spot, you're not going to stop for a bagel, you're not going to stop to get coffee, for go to the pizza shop," Brody says.
This is a problem anyone who lives here experiences.
They worked with Councilman Izzy Patoka and Revenue Authority Ken Mills to remove some parking meters to see if it would boost business.
"So we saw an opportunity with the lack of these meters being used to give a little more space for people to come and use this are to park," says Brody.
Moving on, Dan points out one of those old historic markers for Old Old Court Road.
"The original old court. If you were coming up from the city or you were coming up from Pikesville or other neighboring communities, you would use this road to go down to Towson," says Brody.
Highlighting the community's long history as a crossroads. But if they are successful, it will soon be a crossroads worth stopping in.
"Pikesville was created years ago and generations ago. And now we want to continue that by setting it up successfully for our children and their children," Brody says.
