Hank Shofer is not certain of the year his grandfather went into business. It all began with a bicycle repair shop. A Sun ad from February 1916 notes that Shofer’s Cycle Store was open on South Charles Street. “The Big Store with Little Prices,” the notice stated.

© Ulysses Muu00f1oz/The Baltimore Sun/TNS
Hank Shofer, owner of Shofer’s furniture in Federal Hill, poses outside the store his grandfather founded.

Harry Shofer, the founder of the firm, realized the advantages the South Baltimore-Cross Street Market business community offered. In the late 1920s, he jumped when Hecht’s Furniture House pulled out of the 900 block of South Charles Street and acquired its buildings.

Harry Shofer became a retailing legend in what today is called Federal Hill but was once proudly South Baltimore. He started small — at first he did not sell furniture because that market was pretty much tied up by the