ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701060001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARGARET BROWN SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 8, 1997.
Three historical photos of downtown Blacksburg appeared in Saturday's
New River Current courtesy of Gentry Studio and owner John Kline. Credit
for the use of the photos was omitted from the story about the former
Corner Drug Store.
You can still find plain old corner drug stores tucked away in small towns, but the only "Corner Drug" incorporated in Virginia has shut its doors. The pharmacy with the large glass windows that overlooked the intersection of North Main Street and College Avenue for generations in this small college town closed six weeks ago.
In the red brick building, all of the shelves have been dismantled, some stacked against the aquamarine walls. There's not much to look at any more. The prescription counter at the back is deserted for one of the first times ever, and a cash register just inside the double glass doors sits open, empty.
Virginia Hummel, 80, a longtime resident of Blacksburg, is just one of the many who will miss the old Corner Drug. "I wanted everything to stay right where it was. I'm all sentimental," she explained.
She remembers Corner Drug 70-some years ago when it was called Plank and Whitsett and had a popular soda fountain. Her uncle, Charlie Pedigo, worked there as a pharmacist when she was what she called "a growing-up girl." "Sissy," he would say, "let's walk down to the drug store and have an ice cream cone."
Hazel Hodge who worked at Corner Drug as a high school student after World War II with her two sisters, Zenna and Virginia, recalled how busy it was.
"There weren't any real restaurants in Blacksburg at that time," Hodge said, "so everybody came to Corner Drug."
She earned $15 a week working from 3:30 to 9 p.m. at the soda fountain. "Cokes and ice cream cost 5 cents, and grilled cheese sandwiches cost 20 cents. A ham and cheese cost 30 cents. Sometimes I'd walk down from the high school just to help out at lunchtime," Hodge remembered.
At that time, the front door to Corner Drug was right on the corner, not on North Main where the double glass doors are now. "The front door was where those windows cut off the corner," Hodge said. "And the Greyhound bus stopped right in front of the store every day. We had a ticket lady working in the store who was kept pretty busy."
Virginia Tech had more than 3,000 cadets at that time, plus many back from World War II who were attending college under the G.I. bill. "Not too many of them had cars or a lot of money to spend," Hodge said. "And we were real convenient."
Customers also came from the William Preston Hotel right across North Main, and Hodge also recalled a rooming house nearby. "Corner Drug was the busiest place in Blacksburg."
Pharmacist Bob Christopher bought the store in 1961 and owned it until 1995. He and two other pharmacists staffed the prescription counter: Charles Vaughn and Dick Zimmerman.
One faithful employee, Opal Powers, now 77, worked for 26 years at Corner Drug until she retired four years ago. "That's one-third of my life I spent working there," she said. "I've missed it every day since. We were all family there."
After Zimmerman died, it was just Christopher and Vaughn. "Charles Vaughn worked like a horse," Powers said. "And Dr. Christopher knew what we could do and made sure we did it well."
You can't tell now, but Corner Drug had a cigar counter as well as the soda fountain. The soda fountain Hummel remembered was closed about 15 years ago, the best Opal Powers could remember.
The store was always busy. "We had great customers, and we had 15 people working all the time, selling, keeping accounts," Powers said.
Corner Drug, with its location across from the Virginia Tech campus, was a natural draw for students. Christopher hired many of them because they found it convenient to work weekends and nights.
"So they could go to classes and take their tests during the week," Christopher said. "They worked out well. They were family for a while, and I miss them."
Christopher, who sold the store in 1995, said Corner Drug was good to him. "We did a lot of business," he said. "Every year it was better until 1995. Business and volume increased every year. Maybe not profits though."
He sold out to Phil Hurst, a pharmacist and businessman from Bluefield, who owned the store for about a year and half before rising drug costs and falling profits forced him to sell. On Nov. 18, all the prescription files from Corner Drug were moved to the Revco store on Price's Fork. Pharmacists like Charles Vaughn, 60, and others who worked at Corner Drug were hired by Revco and placed with other Revco pharmacies in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Radford.
"I'll miss the store," Vaughn said. "I worked there 31 years. It meant a lot to me. We did everything we could for our customers, even opening up at night."
Vaughn has two sons who practically grew up at Corner Drug. He said his son, Stephen, worked there 16 years, and Michael, now 27, began at Corner Drug when he was 12. "It was a good store," Charles Vaughn said.
"I wanted the Corner Drug to stay right where it was," Hummel said. "I guess I just got accustomed to it." So did others.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1.- 3. Early photos show the changes that have come toby CNBthe corner of College and Main streets, site of Blacksburg former
Corner Drug store. 4. Corner Drug's red brick exterior has long been
a landmark in downtown Blacksburg.