Ewen McIntyre was a New York City druggist who was active in business for well over half of the 19th Century. A June 1, 1892 “Pharmaceutical Era” feature on McIntyre celebrating his 50th anniversary as a druggist referred to him at that time as “the oldest living druggist in New York.”
The son of a farmer, McIntyre was born in upstate New York in 1825. According to another feature on McIntyre, this one found in the February, 1913 edition of the “Druggist Circular,” he arrived in New York City sometime in the early 1840’s where he attended the New York City College of Pharmacy while also serving as an apprentice in the drug store of George D. Coggeshall who, at the time, was located at the corner of Pearl and Rose Streets in lower Manhattan. The feature went on to describe the terms of his apprenticeship.
The then prevailing term of service for an apprentice was four years, and he received, as compensation, board and lodging, two courses of lectures on pharmacy and chemistry, and at the end of the four years, $150 in money… He served the four years and was graduated by the New York College of Pharmacy in 1847.
One of five graduates that year, a notice listing the members of his graduating class appeared in the March 19, 1847 edition of New York’s “Evening World” (last paragraph).
Within two or three years of graduation McIntyre left Coggeshall and opened his own drug store. First listed in the 1849/1850 New York City directory with an address of 872 Broadway, it was located at the northeast corner of Broadway and Eighteenth Street. Today it certainly wouldn’t be viewed as a country drug store but according to the “Druggist Circular” feature back then that’s exactly what it was.
At that time cows were kept at one of the opposite corners and milk sold; on another corner pigs were kept. There were no houses above sixteenth Street, on the east side, and none above 23rd Street on the west side of Fifth Avenue.
This early reference to McIntyre’s drug store that appeared in the September 25, 1871 edition of the “New York Tribune” named the business as one of several located along Broadway where you could purchase BURR’s Celebrated Corn Salve and Tooth Ache Drops.
Sometime in the early 1880’s McIntyre’s son, also named Ewen, joined him in business with the 1881/1882 directory listing both father and son with the occupation “drugs” at the 872 (sometimes 874) Broadway address. Not long afterwards, with the population of Manhattan expanding north, so did the McIntyre’s, and by the early 1880’s they opened a second store at 990 Sixth Avenue. This 1885 Sanborn map located the store at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 55th Street (upper left-hand corner).
At the same time they opened their second store Ewen Jr. was admitted as a partner in the business, with the 1883/1884 directory listing both locations along with the new company name, Ewen McIntyre & Son, for the first time.
Both stores remained in operation until 1890 when an April 7th item in “The Pharmaceutical Record” announced the Broadway location was closing down. It appeared under the heading: “News of the Trade.”
The old and well known stand of Ewen McIntyre, Broadway and Eigteenth Street, will be discontinued after May 1 and the business removed to the branch store at Sixth Avenue and Fifty-fifth street while the old location will be built upon and leased for business purposes.
Business must have been good because build is exactly what McIntyre did and a year later this rendering of the new “McIntyre Building”appeared in the October 17, 1891 edition of “Architecture and Building.”
McIntyre never established a drug store in the building, instead leasing out all of the space to others. The building remains to this day as evidenced by the following photo courtesy of Google Maps.
This left the Sixth Avenue location as McIntyre’s only drug store. In 1891, it was described like this in “The History and Commerce of New York.”
Ewen McIntyre & Son, Apothecaries, No. 992 Sixth Avenue – In its own section of the city the handsome store of Messrs. Ewen McIntyre & Son is a favorite landmark, and is popularly regarded as one of the most complete apoyhecaries’ establishments hereabouts. The house supplies genuine and reliable drugs, chemicals, tinctures, patent medicines, toilet articles, summer and winter beverages etc., at popular prices; it was founded by the present senior partner, Mr. Ewen McIntyre, as far back as 1841 and he admitted his son, Mr. Ewen McIntyre, Jr., in 1881, at which time the firm name was changed to its present style. The trade although local in its character, is of heavy volume , and the house is a popular headquarters for the compounding of physicians’ prescriptions. The store has floor space of 35 x 100 feet, and with its handsome soda fountain, erected at a cost of $2,000, its marble counters, tessellated flooring and large and tastefully arranged stock presents an appearance at once elegant and impressive…
Census records in 1900 list McIntyre Sr.’s occupation as retired so by then he had turned the day-to-day running of the business over to his son. That’s not to say that he didn’t return to the store on occasion as evidenced by this circa 1911 photograph that appeared in the March, 1913 edition of “The Druggist Circular.”
The accompanying story laid out the circumstances that led to the photo.
The Late Mr. McIntyre in His Store
Two winters ago Ewen McIntyre, Jr., took a trip to California and in his absence his father, who died last January, returned for a time to active participation in the business of the store conducted by Ewen McIntyre & Son, at Sixth Avenue and Fifty-sixth (actually Fifth-fifth) Street. This is one of the old stores which, while strictly up to date as a pharmacy, has not been turned into a bazaar for the sale of all manner of knick-knacks and gewgaws. The old-style shop bottles and jars on the shelves, the display of toilet goods and kindred side-lines in the show cases, and even the odor which greets one as he steps into the store all proclaim that the place is an apothecary shop.
While in the store Mr. McIntyre permitted the manager, J. F. Smith to “snap” him and Mr. Smith has kindly allowed the Circular to make a half-tone from the picture he thus obtained.
Ewen McIntyre & Son was still listed as a retail druggist at 990 Sixth Avenue in the 1925 New York City directory. Then, likely sometime in 1926, the business apparently moved one block south to 954 Sixth Avenue where I suspect they took over the corner drug store identified on the 1885 Sanborn Map as “K. Molwitz Drugs.”
They had certainly settled there in March 1927 when a story found in a publication entitled “The Soda Fountain”announced they had just opened a new soda fountain there.
“No customer ever sits at our fountain for more than thirty or forty seconds without getting some attention.” Victor De Rose, head fountain man for Ewen McIntyre & Son, druggists, 954 Sixth Avenue, New York City makes this statement with due pride.
Mr. De Rose until recent weeks was with the Theresa Pharmacy, 58th and Lexington Avenue, New York City…Until he was free to take charge of the new McIntyre fountain he served in an advisory capacity…
The story included the following photograph of the soda fountain that also appears to show a drug counter and drug cases toward the rear.
That same year the McIntyre Drug Store was taken over by the newly organized Allison Drug Stores Corporation. According to the November 1927 edition of a publication entitled “Chain Store Age:”
The organization of Allison Drug Stores Corporation to take over sixteen drug stores operating in New York City was announced last month by Baker, Simonds & Co. in connection with the offering of 70,000 shares of Class A Convertible Stock. One of the stores involved in the transaction is Gray’s Drug Store, 43rd Street and Broadway. The others are located in the Grand Central – Times Square zone and on desirable corners on Broadway and upper Sixth Avenue….
Another story, this one in the October 18, 1927 edition of “Drug and Chemical Markets” made it clear that McIntyre’s was one of the 16 drug stores mentioned in the above story.
The recently organized Allison Drug Stores, Corp., with offices at 1482 Broadway, New York, now own and operate the following drug stores: … McIntyre’s Drug Store, Fifty-fourth Street and Sixth Avenue…
All 16 stores were listed in a December 11, 1927 advertisement published in the New York “Daily News.” Mcintyre’s is on the right-hand side toward the bottom.
The 1929 stock market crash and resultant depression must have taken its toll on the Allison corporation, and by the end of 193o the November 19th edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” announced that Allison Drug Stores, Inc. had been declared bankrupt.
An involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed in Federal Court against the Allison Drug Stores, Inc….The petition states that the drug firm concedes its insolvency and inability to meet its obligations.
The Sixth Avenue drug store apparently survived and was still listed under the name Ewen McIntyre & Son at 54th Street and Sixth Avenue in 1960, though who owned and operated it at this time is unclear.
In 1930 the address of the drug store changed to 1336 Sixth Avenue as a result of New York City’s renumbering of Sixth Avenue in 1929. Later, 1n 1945, Sixth Avenue was renamed Avenue of the Americas. Today the former location of the McIntyre Drug Store lies within the foot print of 1330 Avenue of the Americas, a 40 story office tower. The building was built in 1965 so the drug store disappeared sometime in the early 1960’s.
The bottle I found was blown in a mold and is roughly seven inches tall, 2-1/2 inches in diameter, and contains a little less than 12-ounces. It’s size and shape reminds me of a citrate of magnesia bottle, though it could have contained just about any of the prescriptions, chemicals, tinctures or patent medicines McIntyre was selling.
Embossed with the 990 Sixth Avenue address it certainly dates no earlier than the early 1880’s when McIntyre opened that location and no later than the early 1900’s after which I’d expect to see a machine-made bottle.