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New York circa 1910-1915. "N.Y. Drug Store, Pennsylvania Station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
All the candy may not have been due to a holiday. Up until the 1960s or so, when you visited someone or were invited to dinner, you didn't take wine or flowers, you took candy. So I'm thinking that since this was a glam place in Penn Station, where people would pass through on their way to someone's home, they might have stocked a lot of gift candy.
Definitely not "an everyman retail establishment" -- it's a drugstore in Penn Station in New York City, which means that it was probably one of the most elite drugstores in the world.
and the the light fixtures are breathtaking. I bet it was easy to get lost in this gorgeous store for hours.
(Why do I bet no one in 100 years will ever say that about our Wal-Mart?)
Now THAT, my friends, is a drug store! The woodwork and the soda fountain alone are stunning. You scarcely see that kind of detail in anywhere these days, let alone in an everyman retail esablishment. A hundred years later, we get nasty fluorescent lights, warehouse shelving and stacks of bar-coded cardboard festooned with weasel words from a corporate lawyer.
To the poster who asked if the fans rotate, the answer is Yes! They are Jandus/Adams Bagnel Gyrofans, which were either ceiling or pole mounted. When turned on, they would rotate around their center throwing the breeze in all directions. It's hard to make out for sure, but the one(s) on the back pole look to be the very rare version which used early GE 'pancake' motors.
Fan collectors would love to find either set.
The chairs on the soda fountain seem a bit low to really enjoy your fountain Coke, or ice cream soda. Most soda fountain use stools instead of chairs, and are much higher than these.
[They're the right height. Maybe the chair backs make them look low. - Dave]
Many years after this photo was taken, and back in the very early 1950s, I believe this space was still being used as a drug store. It was on the left just beyond the Seventh Avenue entrance to the Station. Across the foyer and to the right was a Savarin coffee shop if memory serves me well.
The vast supply of nicely packaged candy probably sold well to travelers returning to their sweethearts after long absences. A train-station drug store knows its market.
So, where do I find the Rubber Goods department?
And not much in the way of drugs. And likely many, if not most, of the nonprescription drugs didn't work properly anyway. I'd bet a druggist or doctor from that time would faint if they could see what a 2010 pharmacy carries.
You will LOVE our Perfume No. 22. I wonder how long before one of those NYC counterfeit perfume kiosks came along?
Liggett's Chocolates may have been an important brand in its day. However I still haven't been able to figure out if it was a brand of Liggett & Myers, of Chesterfield Cigarettes fame (or infamy), or of Liggett Rexall Drugs, once the world's largest drug store chain.
What a beautiful store. Lovely stained glass and fancy light fixtures. Fully stocked with delightful treats!
there are usually a half dozen dentists in any street scene from this era.
Even allowing for the daily traffic through Penn Station, there is so much gift wrapped candy in that shop that it must be Valentine's Day or Eastertime or Christmas.
That is one first rate soda fountain there. Between the glass and fountain fixtures I can't begin to imagine how they kept it so clean. Elbow grease I guess.
I found the color postcard based on this image --
I wonder if the dual fans atop the columns behind the soda counter rotated around like a garden sprinkler?
Beautifully artistic candy displays!
would be more fitting, luckily in the rear there is a shelf or two with sugar hangover remedies.
Four major brands of chocolates -- Apollo, Whitman's, Guillard's & Liggett's.
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