Earlier today, a reader emailed me about a photo of pharmacy bottles embossed “Hargis Pharmacy”.
These are the Hargis Pharmacy bottles that got the reader’s attention. Would love to help this reader find more of them. Source: Mr.Bottles.com
The photo originated from a historic bottle collection website, http://www.mrbottles.com; unfortunately, the website hasn’t been updated in awhile.
So, I referred the reader to my colleague, the excellent archivist Jacki Wilson, of the Pensacola Historical Society. The PHS has a treasure trove of artifacts; there may be a Hargis Pharmacy bottle in her collection.
But the email message got me interested in checking back into different databases — I’ve learned over the past three years in Emmett’s research that new things can and do show up as databases are updated.
So, I did a brief search — lo and behold — look at what I found:
The brand new Hargis Pharmacy, located in the also-brand new American National Bank Building. Note the multiple brass spittoons on the floor. Source: The Bulletin of Pharmacy, Volume 24, published by E.G. Swift, 1910, page 131.
I just wish I could find the original photograph of this room. There are so many details I’d love to examine — the tiles. The merchandise cases. The products on the shelves. I really wonder what Emmett bought in this pharmacy — also, did he have a credit line? Did he use the spittoons? (I tend to think he would have had a charge account (he used a lot of pomade); and no, I don’t think he’d use the spittoons (he was more of a cigar guy than a chewing tobacco guy.)
The American National Bank Building, now Seville Tower, today. Modeste’s pharmacy would have been on the right side of the building, facing Government Street. Her office was on the mezzanine level. Source: Pensapedia.com
The photo provides excellent information. The detailed description of this pharmacy tells us that Modeste must have been doing fairly well for herself — after all, the ANBB was the tallest, most prestigious building in Pensacola when it opened in 1910.
I’m sure there were plenty of businessmen competing for the prime space in the building — and here was Modeste with her pharmacy right there.
It makes me feel good knowing that Modeste was doing quite well for herself, at a time when women were not expected to be successful in a male-dominated business world.
Categories: Book Florida History Interesting & Odd
jsmith532
Professor,
Communication, Arts, and the Humanities
The University of Maryland Global Campus
Tell my story. 
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