Lilyan Alberts, who helped anchor Read Street in its countercultural heyday as owner of the shop the Clothes Horse, died May 8 of heart failure. She was 94.
Friends described Ms. Alberts as an educated and sophisticated woman who embraced Asian culture and read The New York Times daily.
Her clothes and curiosity shop at 217 W. Read St. "was just kind of a focal point for that Read Street neighborhood," said Jack Lapides, her attorney.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Read Street was home to funky businesses that offered an alternative to the more conventional fare found on nearby Howard Street.
Ms. Alberts offered a collection of unique clothes, some of which she hand-picked in Korea, books on Tai Chi or other subjects, and other items that were not mainstream at that time, such as woks.
"It was just a vibrant and eclectic kind of neighborhood," Mr. Lapides said, and Ms. Alberts was an "institution," he said.
"In her time, she was a Baltimore legend, in an era that's unfortunately long past."
Ms. Alberts, who went by Lil, was born in Chicago and lived in many locations during her childhood, her friends said. She studied fashion at the Maryland Institute — now the Maryland Institute College of Art — and spent most of her adult life in Baltimore before spending her final years at the Family Touch Assisted Living facility in Windsor Mill.
Ms. Alberts opened the Clothes Horse around 1955. She and her husband, Robert C. Alberts, split an old one-story garage space into two. Lilyan Alberts set up shop in one half, and the couple lived in the other.
The Baltimore Sun reported in 1967 that the unusual, one-room living space was 15 by 50 feet and housed Victorian furniture, two pianos, and a long wall almost totally covered by books and records.
The couple were supporters of the Peabody Institute and enjoyed the opera and symphony.
Robert C. Alberts, who headed the book department of the former Hochschild, Kohn & Co. department store at Howard and Lexington streets, died in 1967.
Isisara Bey worked at the Clothes Horse for a couple of years as a college student and stayed in touch with Ms. Alberts. After Ms. Alberts' husband died, Ms. Bey said, she set an example for single, ambitious women and kept her sense of adventure.
"She was a role model for me in that she showed me it was possible and not unusual to chart your own course," said Ms. Bey, who would become an executive at Sony Music. "If she was ever lonely as a single person I couldn't tell. She had her independence and she not just valued it but cherished it."
Joanne Lawler met Ms. Alberts as a customer of the Clothes Horse and struck up a friendship. Ms. Lawler said Ms. Alberts practiced Tai Chi and enjoyed Korean cooking, and had a built-in stainless steel wok in her stove.
"Bibimbap and bulgogi were her staples," Ms. Lawler said.
Ms. Lawler said Ms. Alberts' father was a buyer for department stores and infused her early on with a love for fashion. At one point, Ms. Alberts won a writing contest sponsored by Women's Wear Daily in New York and had a short stint as a fashion writer for the trade journal.
Friends said she had an easygoing, sweet personality, and had a dry sense of humor.
"She never lost her cool in any situation," said Neal Ford, who owns a hair studio around the corner from the former Clothes Horse. "She had a quiet sense of humor that was very funny but very droll. She would tell you a joke and most people wouldn't get it because it would be so dry."
Ms. Alberts closed the Clothes Horse around 2000. The space is now occupied by a locksmith.
But even into the early 1990s, the street kept the charm of the 1960s.
"So much has changed, but Read Street is still a nice street," Ms. Alberts told The Baltimore Sun in 1993. "We get all kinds of stores and all kinds of people, black, white and Asian."
"We all get along."
Ms. Alberts donated her body to the State Anatomy Board of Maryland to be used for medical education and research.
"It's just like Lil," Mr. Lapides said.
Ms. Alberts did not have children. She leaves no immediate family.
Memorial ceremony arrangements are incomplete, and Ms. Alberts' remains are expected to be buried with those of her husband in Reading, Pa.
Baltimore Sun librarian Paul McCardell contributed to this obituary.