J.A. Merriam Drug Store
The building to the
left in the topmost photo above holds South Park City's drugstore.
Originally a pioneer feed store in the town of Alma, it was moved
to become the J.A. Merriam Drug Store in the late 1950's, and
its contents have a fascinating story to tell.
It starts in a basement
store-room in the old silver town of Westcliffe, Colorado. In
this basement the 1880 druggist, J.A. Merriam, would store obsolete
drugs, signs, and all kinds of paraphernalia used in the drug
business. He was known to be a bit of a packrat, and extremely
thrifty. It is said he would cut peppermint pellet candies in
half so that his customers' received only the exact weight
of candy for their nickel, and not a fraction more.
Eventually the Merriam
family quit the drug business, and in the years that followed
J.A.'s incredible collection remained untouched in the basement
storeroom. Finally in 1958 this historical treasure was discovered,
and moved to its current location to make up the most complete
line of 1880 drugs, patent medicines and early day notions of
any exhibit in Colorado and possibly the United States.
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