AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi,
Lean on Dee Senior Home Care Services,
and Midas of Annapolis & Pasadena
We became aware that the year 2025 was a special one for Park Hardware/Zeskind’s owner Rick Miller, Jr. and his father Rick Miller, Sr. when we visited their tent at the Greater Severna Park & Arnold Chamber’s SHOP LOCAL Fun Fest in May. The fact that they were celebrating the 100th year of a their five-generation family business was apparent from the banner across one side of their tent.
There was further evidence of the year-long anniversary celebration during the Severna Park Independence Day parade as the Park Hardware float, vintage truck and delivery truck rolled by proclaiming the 100-year anniversary with bold lettering.
Curious to learn more about the celebration and the history of the family business, we met with third-generation owners Rick Miller, Sr. and wife Deborah and fourth-generation owner Rick Miller, Jr. in a comfy conference room.
According to Rick, Sr. and Deborah, who has a passion for genealogy, the business was started in 1925 by Rick’s grandfather and grandmother Sam and Rose Zeskind at the corner of McHenry and Payson Streets in Baltimore.
Photo courtesy of the Miller family.
The store occupied just the bottom floor of the building while a family rented the upper floor. Nevertheless, the fledging business served customers from the neighborhood so well that it became a permanent fixture.
“Things are so different these days from what the hardware business was like at the original Zeskind’s store on Payson Street,” said Deborah Miller. “There was just one large aisle with floor to ceiling shelves. You waited in line and every single person would get waited on by one of the clerks who worked behind the counter. The clerks would literally go up and down the aisle and retrieve whatever items the customer wanted.”
There were small wooden drawers built into one wall that the clerks accessed for certain items. The store also had an ornate tin roof which Rick, Jr. so admired that he had it replicated in the new conference room when creating the Zeskind’s Showroom section of Park Hardware.
Rick, Sr. said his earliest memories are of being in a hardware store. He learned to cut glass as an eight-year-old. He and Deborah traced the succession of family members who succeeded Sam Zeskin to become owners of the business.
It seems that Sam Zeskind’s daughter Miriam fell in love with Rick’s father Irvin Miller whom she lived across the street from. They married and, shortly thereafter, Irvin went off to war. He served his country until the very end of World War II. When he came back, he worked in the Baltimore Zeskind’s store with father-in-law Sam until it was decided they’d expand the business. Irvin and Miriam, (who had worked at Zeskin’s Hardware along with her three sisters), opened Woodlawn Paint & Hardware together.
Rick, Sr. became emotional when recalling that he grew up spending time in the Woodlawn store with his parents absorbing everything around him. Sadly, Rick’s father Irving passed away in 1963 when he was 10 years old.
By 1968, the youngster was back working with his grandfather Sam at the Baltimore store. Surprisingly, the family that lived upstairs at 222 Payson Street were among the first lottery winners. They bought a new car and moved to Florida leaving the upper floor vacant.
“Sam then gave me the upstairs,” Miller said. “I installed shelves up there and I filled them with stock. I doubled the amount of stuff we could sell.”
By 1971, he had met Deborah and had, more or less, taken over running the store for Sam.
“When I first met Rick, he took me down to the store and the neighborhood was just beautiful – an absolutely lovely section of town,” said Deborah. “Nobody there ever locked their doors.”
In 1973 Rick and Deborah married. The following year, Deb convinced her husband, at just 20 years of age, to ask Sam if he’d like to sell him the Baltimore store. Business was kind of slow at the time (the store having been temporarily taken over by someone who ran it into the ground). It was making just a couple of hundred dollars a week.
Within one year after taking over, Rick, Sr. had the vendors paid off and the store was operating at a profit. The business was not only selling hardware then but was also doing roofing and plumbing and selling windows.
“Deborah took care of the books and I focused mainly on hardware,” Miller said. “By the time we were running the business, the city was changing and not for the better. Our store went through the 1968 riots and also the Freddie Gray riots. But we survived. We always helped out in the neighborhood even if it meant going to peoples’ homes. So, we remained untouched by the bombings because neighbors from all around came out on the streets to say ‘Don’t touch that building’.”
“In the city in those days, I would repair 10 or 12 windows a day,” he added. “They’d get shot out or bricked out. In fact, that was a big part of our business.”
Like his father, Rick Miller, Jr. worked at Zeskind’s from the time he was 13 doing screen and window repairs and handling other responsibilities. While attending college in Salisbury, he’d come home and work weekends to “keep his touch”.
After graduating from Salisbury University Purdue School of Business (UMES) as a finance major in 2001, Miller gained experience working for several companies in the construction and building materials sales industries. He eventually acquired one of the companies he’d worked for, Lamar & Wallace.
In 2008, Rick, Jr. joined the business full-time with an aim to modernize and expand it.
“When I initially came into the company as Vice President, I took over roughly 50% of it,” he said. “As I grew things from there, we acquired more buildings, including a warehouse at 207 Payson Street, and hired more people as we entered the manufacturing business. I set up point-of-sales and accounting systems as part of the Millwork Division that I brought to the table.”
Miller explained that the term “millwork” refers to products that come out of a mill or factory – mostly finished wood products like pre-hung interior doors, windows or custom cabinets. He noted that the hardware store is currently about 10 or 15 percent of the total company while the millwork is the major focus.
Under Rick, Jr.’s leadership the company grew substantially over a period of 10 years. In 2019, he completed a buyout of Zeskind’s and opened a showroom at Arnold Station.
The showroom was doing well. But following a fire, Zeskind’s Hardware and millwork shop in Baltimore had moved across Payson Street to a separate location. Four years after opening the Arnold Station Showroom in 2023, Rick Miller, Jr. learned that Gordon Clement had decided to sell Clement Hardware in Severna Park – another multi-generational family business that had operated since 1969 and was much beloved by the community even though big box stores were in competition.
The Miller family was already well acquainted with Clement Hardware. Deborah and Rick, Sr. had moved from Baltimore to Severna Park in the 1970’s and it’s where Rick, Jr. grew up. They’d even occasionally stop by Clement Hardware to pick up something they needed quickly though they owned a Baltimore hardware store.
Rick, Jr. immediately recognized the potential of the popular business and arranged to buy it from Clement. After the sale was finalized in April of 2023, we were introduced to then brand- new owner Rick Miller, Jr. by Gordon following their meeting over donuts at Donut Shack. Miller noted that Clement was being quite helpful with the transition.
Glancing across Ritchie Highway toward Clement Hardware with its well-lit red and white sign as they were about to part, Miller mentioned that he’d be renaming the store but would not immediately change the sign.
“I just didn’t feel right putting our family business’ name on his family business,” he said. “We came up with the concept of calling it Park Hardware because it is in Severna Park and other businesses like Park Tavern also associate their names with the community.”
Miller added that he planned to move the millwork showroom from Arnold to the back part of the hardware store.
Within a month or two, Miller and his staff did, in fact, do a total refresh inside and outside of the store but kept everything Clement Hardware offered as a service and kept Clement’s entire staff.
Though extensive, the remodel managed to retain a substantial part of what once made Clement Hardware a household name. According all three Millers, they still hear people walking through the hardware store refer to it as “Clement’s” because they’re seeing the same or similar products and services.
From paint and tools to barbecue grills, customers will find many familiar products.
The Zeskind’s Door, Window and Millwork Showroom at the back of the store is quite an impressive addition, however, from its very welcoming counter to the products within.
Entering the showroom, customers who haven’t visited previously will be dazzled by the selection of doors and windows displayed.
They’ll be equally astonished by wall upon wall of fixtures and hardware. Between the hardware store and the showroom, customers can find almost anything they need for a DIY or construction project of any magnitude.
“I must say that we have a lot of contractors coming into the store regularly. They might just come in at first to buy screws or a hammer but then they notice that we sell doors, windows and molding. They might just have a job coming up that will require those products,” Rick, Jr. said. “In that way, we’ve attracted many contractors who are now regular customers.”
Rick, Sr. agrees with his son that, since buying the store from Gordon Clement, the business has done well but is constantly evolving. As the company’s owner and president, Rick has dealt with a number of changes this year including moving the manufacturing operation from an oversized, expanded space back to their facility on Payson Street in Baltimore that is better suited.
Deborah, who kept the books and acted as CFO until recently, decided to step back. Rick, Sr. loves taking care of the hardware store as much as ever. He’s quite busy loading and unloading trucks, doing repairs, placing orders, doing inventory and handling customer service. It’s interacting with customers that keeps a smile on his face.
All three of them – especially Deborah – were eager to acquaint me with the new fifth-generation member of the Miller hardware dynasty. In fact, Deborah walked me forward to meet her granddaughter Chloe Miller who is now working behind the hardware store counter.
We couldn’t possibly leave without asking Rick, Jr. and Rick, Sr. what Park Hardware has planned for Saturday, September 20th – the day they have set aside for a Celebration and Customer Appreciation Day.
According to Rick, Jr., the celebration has been planned with helping other family businesses in mind. In the morning there will be a family business food truck on the parking lot with free donuts for customers who have made a Park Hardware purchase. Between 11 am and 2 pm, the nearby family business Jeno’s Steaks from Olde Severna Park will have their truck onsite giving out free slices of cheesesteaks or hoagies to Park Hardware purchasers. Afterward, the Go Melvo Snow Cone truck will arrive to give out free snow cones to purchasers.
If you would like to see a bit more history about Zeskind’s or view showroom products, visit the special website Home – Zeskind’s (zeskinds.com) or, to keep up with what Park Hardware is doing (including their upcoming Fall Native Plant Sale) visit Park Hardware.
AAUW BOOK SALE COLLECTION SCHEDULE WITH DATES AND SITES FOR PICK-UP
Alice Harrison, Publicity Chair for the American Association of University Women Anne Arundel Branch, sent us the collection schedule for folks to donate books for the organization’s autumn book sale. The dates for all three locations are August 16th, September 6th and 20th, and October 4th and 18th between 9 am and noon each day.
The locations are the same as last year:
Annapolis – St. Phillip’s Church, Bestgate Road
Arnold – YMCA of Central Maryland – West Campus Drive off Rt. 2 (Ritchie Hwy.) parking lot
Severna Park – St. Martin’s-in-the-field Church, 375 Benfield Road
We’ll have the dates and location for the eagerly anticipated Autumn Booksale (usually in November) at a later time. For information on AAUW and to follow the organization’s activities, visit AAUW Anne Arundel County (MD) Branch.
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility whilereducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.
And Midas of Annapolis and Pasadena, A family- owned business with four locations (Annapolis, Pasadena, Laurel and Wheaton). With 40 years’ experience and the backing of a national brand, they are committed to earning customers’ trust by offering the expertise, value and responsiveness drivers expect – “every time they visit us.”
