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

Artist

2006-09-14T16:20:49-06:00

Looking for any information on Louis K. Harlan, an artist in the early 1900’s.

Scapbooks won’t go away soon

2006-06-22T10:02:44-06:00

The pages fascinate. Old, torn and worn, they are filled with memories.

Here a ticket to a show, stained and worn. There a business card from a long-forgotten merchant. And everywhere photos: men and women standing straight and mirthless, staring into the lens as if smiling for the camera was a late 20th century cultural phenomenon; buildings and homes, some identified in fading white ink on black paper, many sliding loosely among the pages, long ago torn from any identifying placement.

And the guns. Why photos of guns? Why photos of men with guns?

The scrapbook (click the photo below) put together by Maude Neville, daughter of A.W. “Judge” Neville, in the 1920s became part of the A.M. and Welma Aikin Jr. Regional Archives several years ago. As Archivist Daisy Harvill and I paged through it recently, the irony wasn’t lost.

There before us lay an early 20th century technology for recording events, for taking bits of history and making their memories as permanent as possible. And there we stood discussing how we might one day transfer those memories to an early 21st century technology serving the same purpose: the Internet.

Which is better? I’m not sure either could be called better. The Internet will take these pieces of the past and make them available for all to view and read. But scrapbooks pasted together with glue and tape and bound with happy memories won’t go away soon. Nor should they. They carry intimacy and emotion no Web site can match.

The Aikin Archives Forums

Downtown Drugstores

Artist

Scapbooks won’t go away soon