Fields of Pikesville is closing

After 120 years of continuous operation, Fields of Pikesville is closing.

"It's true," said Fields co-owner and general manager Jeffrey Levin, whose pharmacist father Norman bought the store from the Fields family in 1946. Levin said that the store and its lunch counter, a longtime gathering spot for Pikesville residents, will close around Labor Day, or as soon as inventory is sold off.

Still know as Fields Pharmacy by the locals, the pharmacy stopped operating in 1998, according to Levin. But customers continued to patronize both the lunch counter and the store's impressive cosmetics department, which had long been supervised by Jeffery Levin's mother, Ruth Hollander.

"We're just not doing the business to stay open," said Levin, who has run the store since 1976. Although Fields has had a long stretch of struggling on Pikesville's main street, Levin said there was a drastic drop in business over the past 10 to 12 weeks although he declined to speculate about the reasons for it. In recent months, however, new chains like Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. and the Corner Bakery Cafe have been drawing the breakfast and lunch crowd farther up Reisterstown Road.

"Our family and employees are thankful for the opportunity to have served our customers for as long as we have," Levin said.

Asked whether he expected to see a stream of well-wishers pour into Fields for their last club sandwiches and chocolate snowballs, Levin said, "You know what Yogi Berra said, you should never make predictions, especially about the future."

richard.gorelick@baltsun.com

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