After eight years in Baltimore County, Ruth Shaw Inc. will be back open in The Village of Cross Keys on April 1.
Co-owners Ray Mitchener and Brian Comes announced on social media that Tuesday is Opening Day for their store at 5100 Falls Road in Baltimore City.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for the women’s designer clothing boutique, which first opened in Cross Keys in 1973 and moved to The Shops at Kenilworth in Towson in 2017.
“This is NOT a joke,” the owners posted on Instagram. “Ruth Shaw will open in The Village of Cross Keys on April 1, 2025. Consider this your invitation to stop by and welcome us home.”
Ruth Shaw occupies the space vacated last year by The Store Ltd., the business that jewelry designer Betty Cooke opened in Cross Keys in 1965 with her husband William Steinmetz. The Store Ltd. closed after Cooke passed away last August at age 100; Steinmetz died in 2016. Shaw, the clothing store’s founder, died last year at age 96.
Caves Valley Partners now owns the retail and office portions of the mixed-use community started in the 1960s by developer James Rouse and has been working to revitalize it by bringing in new stores, restaurants, residences and office tenants. Luring Ruth Shaw from the county is one of the ways it’s strengthening the tenant mix while filling the gap left by The Store Ltd., which was the last of the original retail tenants at Cross Keys. A bedding store, Yves Delorme, has opened in a second storefront that Cooke leased as a work area at Cross Keys.
On Saturday, the Ruth Shaw logo was mounted over the entrance to the Cross Keys location, 24 Village Square, and the store appeared to be full of merchandise. A few undressed mannequins were grouped by the front windows, waiting to be turned into a display. Shoppers periodically stopped by to peer in and test the front door. Employees could be seen inside, preparing for the opening.
The Towson store, meanwhile, is closed and empty, but the Ruth Shaw logo is still visible on the glass storefront. “Celebrating Fifty Fabulous Years of Fashion,” additional lettering reads.
Starting on Tuesday, hours at the new Ruth Shaw store will be Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The phone number is 410-532-7886.
“There is no place like home,” Comes said when Ruth Shaw’s move back to Cross Keys was announced in February. “We look forward to getting back to our roots.”
