R. McKeldin ceremonially opened the third suburban D.C. Hecht Company store at Prince George's Plaza in Hyattsville. Gov. J. Millard Tawes did the honors on August 29, 1960, when he opened the fourth suburban D.C. location, the store at Marlow Heights Shopping Center. May Company The Hecht chain was acquired by the May Company in 1959. At this time, the historic 1924 Bernheim-Leader store on the corner of Howard and Lexington Streets in Baltimore was renamed Hecht's, becoming its flagship store in the Baltimore area. It closed in 1988, one of the last department stores to remain in the downtown district. In 1998, it was declared a city landmark, and has since been renovated into apartments owned by Southern Management. Many other stores acquired later were also rebranded as Hecht's. In 1990, Hecht's acquired four Miller & Rhoads stores in Virginia. That same year, the May company acquired the Thalhimers chain from Carter Hawley Hale Stores. The following year it was announced that the Thalhimers stores would be folded under the Hecht's name. When May took over ten Hess's stores, based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, three of them re-opened as Hecht's and the others were operated by corporate siblings Kaufmann's and Filene's. Hecht's acquired Wanamaker's, based in Philadelphia, and Woodward & Lothrop, based in Washington, D.C., taking over 17 stores acquired in 1995 in joint acquisition with JCPenney. Fourteen stores were consolidated the same year. Thirteen of Strawbridge and Clothier's stores, based in the Philadelphia area, were acquired in 1996. Following the acquisition, S&C was renamed Strawbridge's. Their management consolidated with Hecht's the same year, but the Strawbridge name was retained and expanded to all the Philadelphia locations. In the Nashville area, Hecht's took over selected former Castner Knott stores, which had been purchased from East Tennessee–based Proffitt's in 2001. Proffitt's previously acquired them as a result of the Mercantile Stores/Dillard's merger in 1998, and briefly rebranded them as Proffitt's locations. See also List of defunct department stores of the United States References Further reading Longstreth, Richard W. "The mixed blessings of success: the Hecht Company and department store branch development after World War II," in Hudgins, Carter L. and Cromley, Elizabeth Collins eds., Shaping Communities: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, VI: University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville). Originally a 1995 monograph published by the Center for Washington Area Studies at George Washington University. Cultural Tourism D.C.: Terrell Place / Hecht Company Site