For long-time residents of Montevallo, the most iconic and enduring commercial building on Main Street is without a doubt the elegant 100+ year old brick edifice with double entrances that anchors the corner of Main and Middle Streets.
Czeskleba TV and Pool Supply, the current 47-year occupant, has operated out of the building since 1972. But this building is remembered primarily for housing a drug store throughout most of the 20th century.
While the name of the business occupying the right-hand portion of the building is not apparent in the early 1900’s photo at upper left, we can see that its offerings to customers prominently shown in window signs were Drugs, Chemicals, Toiletries, Art Supplies, and Cigars.
As early as 1919, Upchurch-Wilson Drug Co. welcomed customers to their store in the building. By the mid-1920’s the business had transitioned to simply Wilson Drug Co. Owned by druggist P.C. Wilson, known to everyone in town as “Doctor” Wilson, his store became a landmark and gathering place “On the Corner” in the heart of town.
Wilson’s shared the building with Hicks’ Ben Franklin “dime” store during the 1930’s and early 1940’s until Hicks’ moved across Middle Street into a larger space. At that time, Dr. Wilson tore out the wall separating the two businesses and expanded the drug store into the dime store space.
Already popular with the girls from Alabama College and their Saturday and Sunday dates, and known for having an excellent soda fountain and plenty of stools and marble topped tables for patrons, an additional soda fountain and seating was installed in the new space that mirrored the original and established the only two-sided soda fountain in Central Alabama. It was a wonder to behold, as were the banana splits, milk shakes, sundaes, and ice cream sodas.
Wilson proclaimed his expanded business and spectacular soda fountain by splashing “Wilson Drug Co.” across the front of the building in brightly painted lettering as well as with a large new custom-made sign.
In the same general time period between 1950 and 1955 that ownership of neighboring Montevallo Drug Co. was changing, Dr. Wilson decided to also sell his business to a new druggist who came to town named Kyle McClure. Wilson retained ownership of the building, but his old customers now had to adjust to the business’s new name, McClure Drug Co.
Although McClure continued to operate the soda fountain, it was not as central to his business model as it had been for Wilson. He was more focused on pharmaceuticals and the sales generated by the greatly expanding drug options that doctors were now prescribing. As a result, McClure chose to occupy only half of the building and convinced Dr. Wilson to remove the newer half of the soda fountain and restore the wall between the two spaces that had been there previously.
When the restoration work to restore the two store spaces in the building was completed, McClure consolidated into the original drug store space on the corner, while Nordan Hardware moved into the new space from its previous location in a building one block east at the corner of Main Street and Vine streets.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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