New look at the Village of Cross Keys brings eateries

Developer Jim Rouse opened his shops at the Village of Cross Keys a full 15 years before his version of Harborplace opened. Each was his firm’s conception of what shopping could be.

The fate of the Harborplace site hangs in the balance, but Cross Keys, at the 5100 block of Falls Road, is also in the midst of change. Not a dramatic change, but a new wing is under construction. It is the first substantial alteration made to this village center since 1965.

The tenants are signed up for the new pavilion — an Asian restaurant, a coffee shop and an ice cream emporium. There’s also a new “coastal” style restaurant in the works.

“The new wing is approximately 10,000 square feet out of the existing 100,000 square foot area,” said Arsh Mirmiran, an owner of Caves Valley Partners. “We see the new part as a jewel box building that blends old and new and gives a front door to the property.”

In time, there’ll be a new tenant in the spot where Donna’s restaurant operated. And when the borrowing market changes, a new mid-rise apartment will fill the space of the Cross Keys tennis barn.

“We want Cross Keys to be a place where you can come in and explore. It’s not at all like a strip mall,” Mirmiran said.

There’s continuity here. Unchanged is the Falls Road gatehouse and the winding network of roads that reach the residential part of this neighborhood. The actual shopping area, always called the Quadrangle, is cocooned around a small hotel and some offices.

Mirmiran, whose Caves Valley Partners bought the Quadrangle portion of the neighborhood several years ago, said the original design of the shops faced inward and there was not really a main entrance.

He hopes the new pavilion will add the feel of an entry way, enlarging upon the current arrangement of side passages he calls “the breezeways.”

Rouse obviously liked what he created here. His personal office was above The Store Limited, the shop where an indomitable Betty Cooke, at age 99, continues to offer her self-designed silver jewelry, fashion items and designer wares.

While retailing changes have upended downtown Baltimore and Towson, Cross Keys resisted. Cooke’s Store Ltd., has been here since Sept. 20, 1965, when the Cross Keys shops officially opened.

The surrounding residential Village of Cross Keys, its townhouses anchored in a green setting, is about a year older. Announced in 1962, it saw the first rental tenants arrive in 1964.

Cross Keys was once the Baltimore Country Club’s westward nine golf holes. The club sold the land — and more recently sold the remaining part of the golf courses as a public park.

It was also an early high point for developer Rouse, who died in 1996. There’s a sculpture and plaque dedicated to him in one of the Quadrangle’s planters. As a developer, Rouse left his mark on Baltimore’s neighborhoods. His Waverly Towers, Greenmount Avenue and 29th Street and Mondawmin, preceded Cross Keys.

Cross Keys became a collection of luxury shops, perhaps replacing downtown Baltimore’s Charles Street for carriage trade.

When Cross Keys arrived, it did so with a cool midcentury modern design style. It was constructed of salmon brick and wood siding painted in a gray-green paint — technically “willow mist” — that was recently replaced by horizontal stained cedar siding.

“People were tired of that green paint,” Mirmiran said.

The first tenants included some old Baltimore favorites — the Equitable Trust Co., Silber’s bakery, Cross Keys Pharmacy, Carl’s Beauty Shop, Elite Laundry, Century Shoe Repair, the Cross Keys Barberia, Phyllis Mollett Travel Agency, Octavia’s women’s clothing, Village Set sportswear, Boutique Caprice and the Village Roost, a popular coffee shop that also served as a discrete meeting place for big shots discussing mergers and acquisitions.

Many thought the Quadrangle surrendered some of its character when the old Cross Keys Deli closed. Food bonds people and the old deli did just that.

“As a kid, I went to the Village Food Market in Cross Keys. We loved the fried chicken and the Western fries. There was a Roost Restaurant too, a cheese shop and an ice cream place. I’m trying to bring that all back,” said Mirmiran.