It’s always amazed me how Kodachrome film can make an over 50-yearold scene look like it took place last night. That’s certainly the case here inthis beautiful night shot of a Christmas shopping crowd at a Peoples Drug storein Martinsburg, West Virginia, from an original slide I bought some time back.
But this was well over fifty years ago, probably closer tosixty, an infinitely simpler time compared to today’s warp drive existence.This was prior to the “shopping center era” for most communities across America,and prior to the “mall era” for all but a handful. These were the early postwaryears, just before the boom, a time when doing a big chunk of one’s Christmasshopping at the corner drugstore was still an entirely reasonable proposition.When the main Christmas gifts one received, oftentimes, were the ones thatstill matter most today –time spent and meals shared with loved ones. Oh, and maybe a new Falcon Pipe for Dad and abottle of Tussy Wind and Weather Lotion for Mom, of course.
Peoples Drug, the leading drugstore chain in the greater Washington,D.C. area, had a history that spanned the 20th century itself, savefor a few years on either end. Founded in1904 with a single store at 824 7th Street in D.C., the company had grown tonearly 160 stores by the end of 1955, with locations in six states (Maryland, Virginia,West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee) in addition to those in the District.The Peoples name lasted until the early 90’s, a few years after theiracquisition by CVS.
I don’t know the address of this location, and being a nightphoto there aren’t enough visible details to date the building with any accuracy.As always, I’m hoping someone can help us here. The signage, however, sports thewonderful late 30’s/early 40’s deco lettering (“drugs”) that many drug chains (andvariety chains like Kresge and Murphy) used from time to time on cornerlocations.
To the extreme right of the photo you’ll notice another retailicon – a tower sign for the Acme grocery store. Now there have been lots ofAcmes out there – Acme of Akron, Acme of Virginia, Acme Co. (makers of rocket-poweredroller skates, dehydrated boulders and the “Do-it-Yourself Tornado Kit”), but Ithink this store was part of the best known Acme of all, the Acme Markets divisionof the Philadelphia-based American Stores Company. For many years they operateda small number of stores in the West Virginia panhandle.
All I know is I’d have loved to have done at least some ofmy Christmas shopping there. A Stetsonhat and a time machine, and I’m there! One quick note - I’m so sorry for the long gap betweenposts. I’d like to be able to say I was “waiting for the end of the world” asthe Mayans would put it (or was that Elvis Costello – I never get these thingsstraight), but I can’t. I’m working on some new things to put up here, someholiday related and some not, between now and Christmas.
In any event, I hope each one of you is off to a greatholiday season, or will be soon!
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