Paul Wockenfuss won’t deny that, while growing up, having a candy factory in his family’s basement was a good thing. Not only did he get his fill of chocolate, his father employed “practically everyone” in the neighborhood. “It was after school for two or three hours, that sort of thing,” he said.

Paul is owner and president of Wockenfuss Candies. In January, he opened the business’s eighth store in Bel Air’s historic Fulford Cottage. The popular candy confectioner has been family owned and in continuous operation since 1915.

“My grandfather, Herman Charles Wockenfuss, immigrated here when he was 14 years old, with his brother. At that time, Baltimore was a major candy-making city and he learned how. About 25 or 30 years later, he opened his own store,” Wockenfuss said.

The Wockenfuss family (from left): Paul, his wife Lynn, his father Herman and mother Marian, have learned that the historic Fulford Cottage, in which their Bel Air shop is situated, will be featured on the 2008 Christmas ornament by the Harford County Historic Preservation Commission.

Paul’s parents, Herman and Marian Wockenfuss, purchased that store from Paul’s grandfather, in 1945, just after World War II ended. Paul purchased the business from his parents in 1998.

The elder Wockenfuss’s aren’t out of the business, however. His mother, now an octogenarian, works at the Fulford Cottage location. His father is close by, watching TV and eating lunch with his wife in an upstairs sitting room Paul prepared especially for him.

“The store is doing extremely well, it’s shocking. People have been telling us for years, ‘When are you coming to Bel Air?’ I never quite understood that 12 miles is too far to travel for what you want, but that’s how the market works,” Paul said.

A former Maryland State Trooper who holds a degree in accounting, Paul knows he has to keep improving and modernizing the 93-year-old business to stay competitive in the marketplace. Wockenfuss Candies at the Northeast Market moved to the White Marsh Mall when it opened, which has been a boon for business.

“There was a dramatic increase in business. It’s a very good mall,” he said. Paul also commended his new business neighbors for their support of his new location as well as the Harford County Health Department for working with him to make opening the new location “a nice process.”

“I got a building permit Dec. 18 and opened Jan. 22. No problems at all,” he said. “I went to the Health Department before we had plans. I asked them what they wanted from me. We had an open conversation.”

Wockenfuss said he looked for property in Bel Air for three years before settling on Fulford Cottage. He chose the early 19th century stone rubble building because it was zoned commercial and already had parking.

According to “Bel Air: The Town Through Its Buildings” by Marilynn M. Larew, the building was a carriage house for Mrs. Alexander M. Fulford’s house at the corner of South Main Street and Fulford Avenue. Over the years, it has housed a soft drink bottling company, shops, private residences and the office of former Congressman Robert Bauman.