The Aikin Archives Forums

Downtown Drugstores

2006-08-11T12:13:59-06:00

A current (August, 2006) question elicited for the Aikin Archives asks if anyone remembers the Palace Drug Store.

Actually there were two. The Palace Number One was located on the northeast corner of the Plaza, and the Number Two was located on the southwest corner of the Plaza. Both were owned by William H. Campbell and John R. Campbell, two gentleman who also owned Campbell’s Ice Cream Company at 143 South Main.

The Number One is best recalled as a favorite watering hole for Paris High School students, especially in midafternoon when school was dismissed for the day. There was a side entrance facing Lamar Avenue, and that’s where the Palace Coffee Shop and the pharmacy were accessed. Entering from the front, which faced the Plaza next door to S. H. Kress and Co., you saw the beautiful and long marble-topped fountain to the left, plus booths on the right and a table in back. The waitresses were high-school girls who wore immaculate white dresses, probably made of voile or watered silk. One was Martha Savage (PHS Class of 1955), and another was Virginia Lane (PHS Class of 1957). They could concoct any kind of Coca-Cola drink you wanted, and the most popular was the cherry Coke for only a nickel. My favorite on a summer day was the tall refreshing orangeade with fresh-squeezed fruit for only a dime. All varieties of sundaes were available for just fifteen cents. My favorite was the marshmallow, which featured a syrupy marshmallow ingredient swirled throughout the bounteous scoops of ice cream. Daisy Harvill recalls narrow aisles crowded with various items of merchandise.

The Number Two, being cater-cornered across the Plaza from the Number One, was not nearly as popular for students, but was busy enough. The fountain was on the right, tables on the left. Henry McEwin recalls a different interior layout, possibly because of a fire at nearby Dobson’s, a general merchandise store. His cousin, Earnestine Bonner, attended the fountain, which was in back according to him. My favorite reason for patronizing the Number Two was the self-serve ice-cream freezer with its pints of Campbell’s ice cream for fifteen cents. Their orange-pineapple flavor was outrageously scrumptious. Campbell’s also intoduced a bar-on-a-stick novelty called the Bananza. This was a frozen banana enrobed with chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream. I rarely had enough money to afford them at fifteen cents, what with Popsicles still costing only a nickel.

The Corner Drug Store was located on the Plaza’s southeast corner and had its fountain on the right. Two of the fountain girls were Chloie Ingram and Sandra Perkins. Mamie Rutherford, who played carols on an organ at Belk’s during Christmas season, recalls the chocolate-marshmallow sundaes. The Beasley-Vaughan Drug Store was on the Plaza’s north side during the 1950s. A decade earlier it had stood next to the Grand Theater on Lamar. Its fountain, which stood in the store’s rear, had a unique way of serving drinks. Conical paper cups were inserted in stainless-steel holders. My favorite was the lime Coke, which of course featured fresh-squeezed limes. I recall vividly the boxes of Pangburn’s Chocolates filling the shelves behind the fountain. There was a Cut Rate Drug Store at 218 Bonham. It had no fountain, but was the best place in Paris to buy cameras and photographic supplies.

The R. J. Murphy Drug Store on the Plaza’s south side was one of Paris’s oldest establishments. Evidently it specialized in cigars, as cigar bands littered the sidewalk and gutter before it. I recall many other drugstores, the most popular being the Owl at 1775 North Main, where motorcades packed with teen-agers circled nightly. As for Paris Junior College, the C & C Drug Store at 1709 Clarksville was always packed after football games on Saturday nights. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to revisit the Palace Number One again, just as it was in its glorious heyday!

David Clarkson, alumnus
Paris High School
Paris Junior College

Old Hospital

2008-02-28T10:52:21-06:00

Aikin Regional Archives has on display a wooden model of the first St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paris, TX. It
arrived with a collection of materials from the hospital, and we would like to know who made the wooden model and for what purpose. It has six small wooden “nuns” to go with it. Does anyone connected to the former St. Joseph’s Hospital have any recollections of this model? It is currently on display in the foyer of the Rheudasil Learning Center at Paris Junior College. Contact Daisy Harvill, 903-782-0411 or dharvill@
parisjc.edu.

How about an Aikin Archives historical Wiki?

2006-08-09T11:33:46-06:00

We have the opportunity to establish a historical Wiki on this site, so I thought we should gauge interest in it.

For those unfamiliar with the term, this is the definition listed in perhaps the most well known Wiki on the Internet, Wikipedia:

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change some available content ... This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. ... The first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, is named after the “Wiki Wiki” line of Chance RT-52 buses in Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii. ... “Wiki-wiki” means “hurry quick” in Hawaiian. It also refers to a type of fish native to the islands.

To get a feel of how a Wiki works, visit the Wikipedia site and browse. It’s basically an online encyclopedia.

The Wiki concept of collaborative authoring would allow users of this site to create entries on any topic of historical interest in the area. For instance, a user could create an entry about cotton, then write about cotton’s impact on this area’s history. Others could add to, delete or change the entry, the object being to produce a body of information on the topic that is generally accepted as complete and correct.

Someone else could produce a separate entry on cotton farming in Lamar County, for instance, and write specifically about that. Other users could then edit, add to it or delete from it.

And so on. There would be no limit on the diversity of topics. If someone felt the need to write about the history of hamburger establishments in Paris, or the impact of a certain breed of dairy cow in Hopkins County, they could. And others would be free to add to those articles or edit them.

Please take a moment to vote in the accompanying poll, and respond below if you have questions or ideas or opinions.