Photographed alongside their first delivery van in 1926 are Mathilda Henning-Koch and husband Carl Koch with son Carl in the truck.

Florist, bank turning 100 this year

by Randy Leonard

The traditional gift would be a 10-carat diamond ring for two “green” Dundalk businesses marking the 100th anniversary of their inception this year. 
    Dundalk Florist and The Patapsco Bank are celebrating their respective centuries of tending Dundalk’s flowers and tendering its money.

Patapsco Bank
    First incorporated as the Patapsco Building and Loan in October 1910, Patapsco Bank’s 10 founding members included the firm’s first president G.M. Stengei, a truck farmer,  a second farmer, a restaurateur, a blacksmith, a builder, a wheelwright, a lawyer, a man in real estate and another in the insurance business, according to a Jan 9, 1953, article in The Community Press and Baltimore Countian.             The group met at a blacksmith’s shop near what is now Holabird Avenue and Sollers Point Road.
    According to the article, Maryland granted a charter on Oct. 22, 1910, and each founder put up $130 to make the first loan of $1,300, but the 1910 annual report from the Bureau of Statistics and Information of Maryland listed the company’s date of incorporation as Oct. 24 and its capitol stock as $130,000.
    The company operated out of the blacksmith shop and opened branches in St. Helena and Sparrows Point, which operated for a decade or so, according to the Community Press article.
    In 1911, the group’s offices were moved to Tolson’s Store on Shell Road near the Sparrows Point Car Line – land now occupied by the northbound lanes of Dundalk Avenue at Holabird Avenue, according to the Community Press.
    The group built an office on the west side of the rail line in 1919 and with the expansion of Dundalk Avenue moved to a third location near the intersection in 1929, and then moved to another office at 6730 Holabird Ave. in 1952, according to the article.
    The company moved into its current Merritt Boulevard location in 1970, according to the bank’s Web site. Receiving a federal charter in 1957, the name was changed to Patapsco Federal Savings and Loan Association and then to state-chartered Patapsco Bank in 1996, the same year as its holding company’s initial public offering.
    The bank now also has branch offices in Glen Arm, Hampden, Glen Meadows retirement community and Waltham Woods and has a market value over $4 million.
    The bank held a ceremony this month, giving employees anniversary pins to wear throughout the year. A birthday celebration is planned for Oct. 22.

Dundalk Florist
    With its roots stretching back more than 100 years, Dundalk Florist has remained a family business.    Following a cold freeze that sent her brother packing to Wisconsin, German immigrant Mathilda Henning-Koch and her husband, Carl Koch, who lived at 7400 German Hill Road, salvaged what they could from her brother’s greenhouse and founded M.H. Koch and Son in 1910, according to a historical presentation on the company’s Web site.
    The family continued growing and selling flowers after Carl’s death in 1924. At the suggestion of son August Koch Sr., the family moved the business to its first showroom at 7233 German Hill Road in the late 1920s.
    August took over the business after his mother’s death in 1941 and was active in the community as a charter member of the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce. He expanded with a floral shop at 545 Dundalk Avenue in 1945.  Several years after August Koch Sr. died, son August Koch Jr. bought the business from his siblings and cousin in 1984 and began operating with the help of four of his children. That year the Dundalk Avenue store was closed. The company added the current showroom in 1990 and replaced the greenhouses in 2001.
    Now among the 32 employees, all five of August Koch Jr.’s children – Mary McWilliams, Cindy Morrison, August Koch III, Lynn Hershner and Dawn Kuhnert – work at Dundalk Florist.
    The family will celebrate the anniversary throughout the year with giveaways on the owners’ birthdays, starting with August Koch Sr.’s on Feb. 21. They will hold an open house April 17 and plan to give away a 46-inch flat screen TV in December.

•   To contact Patapsco Bank, call 410-285-1010 or visit patapscobank.com. Call Dundalk Florist at 410-284-1600 or visit
www.dundalkflorist.com.