Drug Stores at Hancock and East Monroe Street

From about 1880 until shortly before his death in 1933, Lewis A. Biehl operated a drugstore at the northwest corner of Hancock and East Monroe Streets. In the 1920s, an ice cream parlor was in the drugstore, making it convenient for customers to have a soda while they waited for their prescriptions to be filled. The early customers of Mr. Biehl arrived on foot, or by horse and buggy. From the 1890s to the 1930s, they could visit his drug store via the streetcar. By 1920 a Pennzoil service station was located kitty-corner to the Biehl store, at the southeast corner of Hancock and East Monroe Streets.

The Biehl drugstore was included in the listing of Sandusky neighborhood drugstores in this advertisement from the September 23, 1928 issue of the Sandusky Register.

Just as in the case of grocery stores, there were drugstores in most Sandusky neighborhoods in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before it was the norm for most families to own an automobile. The ad from 1928 suggested that if a person had a cold, a quick visit to the neighborhood druggist could help prevent pneumonia. The Sandusky Star Journal of July 28, 1939 reported that Harry J. Fisher would soon be having the grand opening of his drugstore at the building formerly occupied by the Lewis A. Biehl drugstore. Mr. Fisher had  remodeled the building, and moved the entrance to the Hancock Street side of the building. (The Fisher drugstore had previously been on West Washington Street.) All vistors to the newly remodeled Fisher Drug store received a souvenir. Below is a picture of the Fisher Drug store in 1955.

By 1957, Earl McGookey was the proprietor of the Fisher Drug Store. Eventually the drugstore became known as the Fisher-Buderer Drug Company. Today, the company is the Buderer Drug Company, a compounding pharmacy with locations in Sandusky, Avon and Perryburg. At GoogleMaps, you can see a recent picture of the intersection of Hancock and East Monroe Street.