Whether you’re an interior designer, contractor or DIY renovator, Zeskind’s has been the go-to place in the Baltimore region for millwork and hardware for generations.

At owner Rick Miller’s Severna Park showroom, you’ll notice framed photographs behind the cashier displaying the four generations of the Miller family that have kept the business alive. Miller’s daughter, Zeskind’s fifth generation, may very well be the person behind the register.

Zeskind’s has long been known for its “fixtures for old row homes, like faucets made of solid brass that needed new seals or stems,” Miller said.

A century ago, Miller’s great-grandfather purchased a specialty hardware storefront on South Payson Street in Southwest Baltimore. Under Miller, Zeskind’s acquired two other multigenerational family-owned hardware businesses.

Now Zeskind’s has three locations and a service that ships specialty products across the country.

While the family no longer owns that original store, Miller is moving Zeskind’s manufacturing back to South Payson Street in time for their 100th anniversary.

Tell me a bit about yourself and how you found yourself taking the lead in your family business.

I spent basically my entire life growing up here in Severna Park going up and helping my dad out in the store. My dad had helped his grandfather out in the same way I had. I learned a lot about window screen repair, and worked in the back stocking shelves, unloading trucks, checking out customers in the summers and on the weekends.

I came into our family business full-time in 2008, when I was 28 years old.

We were always just a corner hardware store in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood. Since 1925, we were known across the city for those things that are hard to find, that no other hardware store would have.

My vision for the company has been to transfer the attention to detail of a small hardware store to becoming the manufacturer and distributor of building materials that we are today. My vision was to change that customer base from retail, direct-to-consumer over to a contractor-supply kind of company.

By 2013, we grew to 12 employees, and 2016 was our biggest year. We built a warehouse and started manufacturing that required bringing in our own enterprise resources computer system, which tracked all of our manufacturing work orders. In 2019, I became the total owner of the business from my parents. By 2023, through an acquisition of Larner and Wallace Manufacturing and Clement Hardware, we now have 45 people and have expanded to two warehouses and a showroom.

What is something you wish people knew about the millwork specialty hardware industry?

In the millwork industry, we are not a lumber yard. The manufacturing of doors and other wood-based materials got so complicated that you need a specialized group of people who understand that complexity. At Zeskind’s, you can purchase an entire stock of customized windows or doors, in any size, shape, color and design for a home. In our showroom, you can find 50 to 100 styles of doors to pick from, as well as custom stair systems and cabinet packages. It’s where the industry has gone to create hyper-custom projects.

What is the appeal of doing business in Baltimore?

We make products that help homeowners satisfy the requirements of the Baltimore City Historic Tax Credit for historic rehabilitations and restorations. City property taxes are extremely high, but through this tax credit program, a homeowner in certain designated neighborhoods could have their tax assessment locked in at a certain price prior to improving their property and keep that lower tax rate for years.

The program has very strict requirements and standards for home improvements that preserve the style of the home, and using wood, we specialize in helping those projects. We’ve received multiple Baltimore Heritage Awards for our work.

Our area is close to Pigtown, and not far from Federal Hill and Union Square. Those neighborhoods are the folks who shaped our store when it was there. We’re not a retail hardware store any more — going back there, we will use every square foot we have for our operations and production — but we still look forward to supporting our community there.

What have you learned from mistakes that others could learn from, too?

My general manager and I jokingly call our mistakes “tuition.” The way I approach every kind of challenge that pops up is to know there is a solution to it. I have never encountered a problem where I couldn’t find a way to resolve it. I think that as long as you approach challenges with that mindset, you will make it through.

What does your next ambition look like for Zeskind’s?

We were founded and existed in Southwest Baltimore, in what some might say is a challenged neighborhood. We’ve spent time in that neighborhood for a hundred years now.

I have a passion for Baltimore and the historic buildings there. I think people might look at a group of run-down rowhomes and say that the blight is horrible, and it is. But I see it as an opportunity. If a roof is caved in, the brick shell is perfectly usable and could be renovated.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.