"Historic Building" Eddy Drug Store

Ken Bott
Jul 22
5 min read

Occupancy History of Eddy Drug store 14 S Main Street

Brigham City's Eddy Drug business was established July 24, 1894 when D.L. Eddy purchased Wm. Driver & Son's City Drug at a location now unknown. Driver had purchased the drug store previously established by W.A. Wade. 1 Eddy's son Wynn L. Eddy, a pharmacist, managed the business. D.L. Eddy bought Mr. Driver's stock of drugs and medicines for $1200. He also bought out the drug departments of the local general merchandise stores, paying the old Co-op $800, Boothe & Peirce $400, Wm. Horsley & Sons $200, Jens C. Gasberg $100. 2 Before this time, small amounts of drugs were sold in these general mercantile stores, but by buying out these merchants, Eddy became the first exclusive drug establishment in town. 3

In July 1898 D.L. Eddy purchased the property at 14 South Main 4 and moved his business into a wooden structure on the property. 5 The building had previously housed the Box Elder Wagon & Hardware Co. 6

The Eddy Drug was the first Brigham city business to sell books, lithe paper-cover kind that sold for ten cents." They also sold the first "Kodak" and the first fountain pen and were known as pioneers in bringing in new merchandise. 7 In 1902, the switchboard for the local telephone company was installed in the drug store. 8 (Of interest, the switchboard was discovered by the present owner while renovating. It had been installed in the building in 1902 with 25 telephone subscribers. Rena Baird was the switchboard operator.)

In the summer of 1907, D.L. Eddy announced that a new two-story and basement brick building would replace the wooden structure on their property.9 The business was temporarily moved across the street to the building vacated by the Knudson Bros. shipping business. 10 By January 1908 the new building was finished and the Eddy Drug was moved back in and open for business. 11

While the Eddy Drug operated on the first floor, the second floor was leased as offices for physicians and dentists. 12 The upstairs rooms of the store housed the local telephone office for a short time before the switchboard was moved to its permanent location at 20 East 100 South in 1916. 13

In August of 1936, Wynn L. Eddy sold the building to Milton D. Peters who also owned the jewelry store next door to the north.14 Eddy continued the business until June 1940 when he retired and sold his stock and fixtures to Glen S. Humpherys, a local pharmacist, who leased the building from Peters. The store was named Glen's Modern Drug. After his retirement, Mr. Eddy remained in Brigham City where he was active in civic and political affairs. He had been a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Amity lodge, a charter member of the Rotary Club, served one term in the state legislature, and was on the city council four years. 15

In 1936 pharmacist Chester S. Hamilton had opened a Drug Store on the corner two doors north of The Eddy Drug. 16 Although they were competitors, Chester Hamilton and Wynn Eddy became good friends. In 1952 Hamilton bought Glen's Drug from Milton Peters. l7 Hamilton honored Glen Humpherys' existing lease until it expired in 1955. That year the Hamilton family remodeled the building, modernizing the second-floor office of physician Howard Rasmussen as well as the interior and exterior of the main floor store. Hamilton Drug operated in the Eddy building until the early 1960s when Hamilton's sons opened new drug stores in the north and south ends of Brigham City's Main Street business district. At that time the Eddy building was used to house Hamilton's business office. 18

In 1975 Chester Hamilton and his wife Idona deeded the building to their daughter Valerie Ann Hamilton Hirning .19 She rented it to a number of tenants. Pat Larsen leased the first floor for a children's clothing store, the Youth Shop, until November 1981 when a fabric business Sew What? moved in. Co-managers Margo Mullen and Nancy Goss made some minor renovations, removing the pharmacy and levelling the elevated floor space where it had been. When Sew What? went out of business in 1987, Thiokol Corporation rented the building for an employee activity center.20

During that time period, the second-floor rooms were rented to Harold Felt for a photography studio and then to artists Ned Young and Colleen Bradford for studio space.21

In February 1993, James Shelton bought the building from Valerie Hirning and moved his pawn shop business there from another location. The Pawn Shop remains in operation at present, and owner Shelton has made no renovations to the building. 22

(The building is currently “3 Goats Gruff”)

This information was retrieved from https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2257355&q=16514

1. Forsgren, Lydia Walker, ed. History of Box Elder County

Published by Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1937 p. 165

2. "Notes of the Bugler" The Brigham City Bugler July 28, 1894,

p. 2 col. 4.

"Eddy Drug store Observing It's Thirtieth Anniversary" The

Box Elder News July 18, 1924 p. 1 col. 3 & 4.

3. IIEddy Drug Purchased By Humpherys" The News-Journal June 7,

1940, P 1 col. 5.

4. Abstract Records. Book D pp. 61 & 62, Line 13/ Recorded in

Book of Deeds R p. 214.