Peppi’s and health department building razed

Jack McLaughlin
Editor
1/01/10

The former Peppi’s Meats shop at Thomas and Hays streets in Bel Air was razed just before Christmas.

The Harford County Health Department building, on Hays Street behind Peppi’s, also was razed. The cleared land will be used as parking, but the County plans eventually to build a new headquarters for the Sheriff’s Office there.

In the three and half years since Peppi’s Meats closed, many people who live or work in Bel Air have passed the butcher shop and deli at Hays and Thomas streets with comments like “I sure miss their subs” or “They had the best hot dogs.”

The realization that Peppi’s was truly gone hit home just before Christmas when a backhoe leveled the building where lunch goers got subs and sandwiches and holiday party planners ordered deli trays, turkeys and hams. Within a block of the Risteau State Office Building and the Harford Circuit Court Building, Peppi’s was popular with those who wanted to grab a sandwich and a bag of chips to take back to the office or enjoy sitting outside in good weather.

Joseph Julius “Peppi” Simmeth, a native of Germany, opened a shop selling meats, cheeses and sandwiches in Bel Air in 1961. His first store was diagonally across the Hays/Thomas Street intersection from the building where Simmeth moved his business in 1964.

Simmeth, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, served in the German army during WWII, taking part in the siege of Stalingrad and the battle of Kursk. He spent six years in Russia as a prisoner of war.

According to Marilynn M. Larew’s Bel Air: The Town Through Its Buildings, the second home of Peppi’s Meats was one of three workingman’s houses built on Hays Street in 1885 by carpenter John Lingan for Stevenson Archer. A member of prominent Harford County family, Archer, a Princeton graduate, served in the Maryland House of Delegates and in the U.S. House of Representatives.

David Moser had worked for Simmeth for ten years, learning recipes and ways of preparing meats that went back 300 years. It was there Moser met his future wife, Diane, a fellow employee. The Mosers purchased the business from Simmeth and his wife Lisa in 1988.

In an April 1999 profile in the Harford Business Ledger, David noted he  worked
12 hours days at least four days a week.

 “Just before Christmas, though, when we have a lot or orders, I might be in at two or three o’clock in the morning,” he said.

Peppi’s was named Bel Air’s Business of the Year in 2005 by the Town Commissioners, but the Mosers decided to close their business in June 2006 rather than make repairs and renovations required by the County Health Department.

According to Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation records, the Mosers sold the property to 143 Thomas Street LLC in March 2007 for $760,000. Harford County acquired it from the limited liability corporation for $825,000 in June 2008.

After Peppi’s was razed, the contractor went on to demolish the building behind it on Hays Street, what was once the Health Department’s main building. The County’s long range plans are to construct a new headquarters for the Harford County Sheriff’s Office on the now vacant land. The Sheriff will remain at 45 S. Main Street for awhile, however, and the property at Hays and Thomas streets will be used for parking.