City Drug Store Then and Now

401-405 N Second Avenue

You may have noticed I intentionally avoid delving into the adventures of the Wild West. Because this particular building was right in the middle of it, I’m making an exception just for you.

Herman Fringer and A. J. Peacock built a drug store at the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Front Street in 1872. Fringer was appointed Postmaster and the post office was located in the back of the store.

Dr. Thomas McCarty and his wife, Sallie, occupied a small room attached to the back of the building and that is where Claude was born the following year. Charles and Carrie Rath lived in the room next door and that little lean-to was the site of the famous Chief Spotted Tail escapade.

The Fringer and Peacock partnership was dissolved in August of 1873. Dr. McCarty worked as Fringer’s assistant in the drug store, which sounds weird because he was Dr. McCarty.

It didn’t take long for McCarty to open his own establishment one door east of F. C. Zimmermann’s store. That business became known as the City Drug Store.

George Hoover bought the post office drug store from Fringer in September of 1881 and flipped it to Dr. McCarty about a week later for a small profit. Lloyd Shinn was appointed Postmaster that October and the post office remained in the building until 1886.

McCarty sold all of his buildings along Second Avenue from Chestnut to Front Street to the ill-fated Merchants State Bank for $20,000 in July of 1887.

Merchants State Bank imploded in February of 1891, still owning the east end of the block from Chestnut to Front.

This parade photo shows the City Drug Store just south of the doomed Merchants State Bank.

It was announced in March of 1892 that Walter F Pine and G. H. Lawrence had bought City Drug. Pine began working there around 1887 and became manager in February of 1889.

Meanwhile, George Hoover finally conducted a sale of bank assets on December 19, 1893.

The Ford County Commissioners bought the City Drug building and other properties, hoping to recover some of their losses from the bank failure.

The Commission voted to rent the City Drug building to Walter Pine for $20 per month effective January 1, 1894. George F McKinney bought the building from the County in November of 1899.

Pine moved City Drug to the Gwinner Building in the Union Block in late January or early February of 1900. At that time, the building constructed by Fringer and Peacock was said to be the oldest remaining structure in Dodge City.

William Robison then remodeled the building and positioned his City Hardware store on the busy corner.

An adjoining structure was built on the west end of the hardware store in the Summer of 1900 to make room for additional stock.

This postcard shows the enlarged City Hardware store with a most unusual roofline.

Robison operated the hardware store until 1924 and “Dodge City’s oldest building” was demolished in January of 1925. Its replacement was a new service station with adjoining storefronts built by the Kennedy Brothers.

The new building had mostly glass along the south and east sides with the service station positioned at an angle on the corner.

Kennedy Brothers Hardware moved to the new location the first part of June.

The grand opening of the service station was held on June 13.

Jewelers Walker and Hoffman arrived later in the month.

This photo was taken during an ag show in the early 1930s with the filling station front and center.

Hoffman bought out Walker’s share of the jewelry store around 1929 and moved to the south room at 607 Second Avenue in the mid-1930s. Around that time, the filling station was Bud’s Certified Service. It changed hands a few times becoming Swede’s and later Andra’s Service Station.

Vernon Beatty opened a tavern called Bar X in the old service station around 1947, which he immediately tried to sell.

Schafer’s Cafe was next door at 403 Second with Lucille’s Beauty Salon on the north side of the cafe. In the early 1950s, Bar X was replaced by the William Cook Insurance Agency. Southwestern Bell rented the former beauty salon for additional office space while they expanded their spot on First Avenue.

A fire at Schafer’s Cafe gutted the building but it was reopened in March of 1953.

Around 1957, an osteopath named Carl Hammer occupied the former filling station with the Cowboy Cafe next door at 403 Second Avenue. Walker’s Sportswear was located between the cafe and Lester Butler’s insurance agency.

The former Kennedy Building is shown here around 1957. Fact check me, auto enthusiasts!

Around 1959, the National Farm Loan Association and Zimmer’s Abstract and Title Co. moved to the former Walker’s location. The whole building seemed a bit boring until the Blue Lounge Tavern moved to the spaces which previously held the filling station and cafe around 1964. It remained there until Urban Renewal took the 45-year-old building away in 1970.

Lettering for the Blue Lounge is visible just beyond the traffic signal.

This is how the site of the City Drug Store looks today:

I would love to recreate the angle of the historic photos, which were taken from the top of the flour mill…but it was demolished, too.

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