68 Fall 2003 Bottles and Extras

GRAND CANYON GLASS By Michael Miller ARIZONA'S BEST - PART TWO

The desire to find and possess the best of the best is the its picture (the only one on an Arizona territorial bottle). inevitable result in our quest as collectors. Of course in order to All five examples of this bottle were found back in the accomplish this it is first necessary to know what are the best of seventies on several lots adjacent to where the Patton Opera House the best. Building had stood. This area is now under the high rises in This time around we are to discuss a category of bottle, which Phoenix as are most of the original business and residential is steeped in folklore. The vision of the quack medicine districts of the 1890's. man selling his alcohol-based potions from his wagon has been E.E. Prowell opened the Opera House Drugstore on Center seen in countless movies throughout the years. Street in April 1890. Prowell had moved to Phoenix from Although this makes for a great visual, in fact Mexican Portland, Oregon where he had also operated a pharmacy. herbalist or U.S. Army doctors usually administered early In October of 1891, Prowell sold his store to J.D. Thorley medicine in the Arizona Territory. who in turn sold it to Dr. George Keefer the following year. In In 1859, Charles Meyer opened the first true pharmacy in the 1898, Keefer moved the store and changed its name to Keefer territory and by the end of following decade drugstores had opened Pharmacy. in all of the large to mid-sized towns in Arizona. 2. HARRY BRISLEY BURKE HOTEL BLD'G In 1880 the first Arizona embossed bottles appeared and in PRESCOTT, A.T. [Fig. 2] the following year Javier Yorba placed his name on a bottle mark- Another very rare territorial marked bottle with some nice fancy ing the earliest example of an embossed Arizona druggist bottle. lettering. Harry Brisley came to Prescott from Tempe in 1890 and Drugstore and Patent Medicines became a partner at Dr. Robert Robinson's drugstore. In 1893 Brisley became sole owner of the then Mountain City Drugstore. Anyone who has begun an Arizona drugstore collection soon A second store was opened in Jerome, Arizona the notices that beyond a few common bottles from following year and in 1895 Brisley moved his Prescott store into Tucson, Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona pharmacy bottles are very the Burke Hotel. tough to find. Even a trip to the largest western bottle show, Las In 1899 a further move occurred with the purchase of the old Vegas, is likely to return a new Corner Drugstore. This store as well as most of the town's [Fig. 1] collector with disappointment business district was destroyed in 1900 in a great fire. Brisley in their search for the elusive soon rebuilt and continued to run his store until 1925. AZ. bottle. 3. PROWELL'S NO 7 LINIMENT It's even tougher for those In 1890 advertisements who seek out an embossed ex- appeared in the Arizona [Fig. 2] ample from each of Arizona's Republican for the Opera 17 known towns, even the House Drug Store. These urged serious pursuers usually bog Phoenix residents to try down at around 6 or 7 towns. products such as Prowell's The point is that with the Koumiss and Prowell's No. 7 exception of a few bottles, all Liniment. Arizona drugstore bottles are Some eighty plus years later pretty hard to acquire. a single No. 7 liniment bottle This said, the best of the best was lifted from a downtown need to combine unique Phoenix privy along with qualities beyond being just very several Prowell A.T. pharmacy rare. Specialty, territorial and bottles. Fortunately the digger mining town bottles are all in- involved was also an amateur cluded when considering the historian and noted the best. significance of the find. 1. E .E. PROWELL This liniment bottle stands DRUGGIST PHOENIX, as the only aqua patent A.T. [Fig. 1] medicine bottle from Arizona. This bottle is almost a toss Only it's lack of territory or up with the #2 selection for the town markings keep it from top spot. Both are territorial being the #1 medicine related marked and are very rare but bottle. what gives this one the nod is 4. ARIZONA MEDICAL Bottles and Extras Fall 2003 69

ASSOCIATION - GLYCO- This one of a kind bottle THYMOLINE [Fig. 3] came from the border town of A clear one of a kind mouth- Nogales but was found in a wash bottle found in the ghost town in . [Fig. 3] Prescott dump. This is one of Jesus Saldamando opened his [Fig. 5] the few bottles from Arizona store in 1905 after years of that advertises a specific working for the International product. Drug Store, also of Nogales. He 5. FRED FLEISHMAN would continue as owner until DRUGGIST TUCSON, his death in 1946. ARIZ. (long neck nursing 10. DRUGGISTS bottle) BROADWAY & MOEUR A specialty bottle sold from TEMPE, ARIZ. [Fig. 5] Fleishman's Drugstore at the A one of a kind bottle until turn of the century. Fleishman recently when a second came to Tucson in 1880, example (along with a rare married Charles Meyer's Laird & Dines bottle) were daughter, Carlotta, in 1883, and excavated in a backyard in received Meyer's pharmacy as Tempe. a wedding gift. He would run Noah Broadway & Dr. this store at 21 E. Congress Benjamin Moeur opened their Street until its closure in 1935. store in 1899. By 1902 Moeur 6. THE BEST IN DRUGS was sole proprietor and the COOPER'S PHARMACY E.F. COOPER. PROP. store's name changed to Valley SAFFORD, ARIZONA Drug Store. This venture was A one of a kind clear pharmacy bottle from the farming town short-lived and by the end of of Safford. This short-lived drugstore operated from 1915 to 1916. that year Moeur closed the It is the only known pharmacy bottle from Safford. pharmacy. Moeur continued to practice medicine in Tempe 6. GLENDALE PHARMACY DR. J. B. HILL, PROP. (as he had done since 1896) until 1926. By the 1930's he became GLENDALE, ARIZONA involved in politics and in 1933 Moeur became governor of Another one of a kind and solitary town bottle, this time from Arizona. the town known as Sugar City. At the turn of the century, what is 10. CRESCENT DRUG CO. DRUGGISTS MESA, ARIZ. now one of Arizona's largest cities, Glendale, was a small A very rare bottle with great pictures of a star and crescent farming community specializing in sugar beet production. The moon from a very tough town to find. Opening in 1909, the large sugar beet plant still stands just outside the downtown Crescent Dug Company was located at 117 Main Street. Frank district. Dr. John Hill moved to A. Cluff was the original manager and continued in that capacity Glendale in 1909 where he until 1916. The store was sold to Arizona Drug Stores Inc. in both practiced medicine and 1930 and became part of the operated his pharmacy. In Buy-rite chain of stores. [Fig. [Fig. 4] 1915, Hill sold the drugstore to 6] [Fig. 6] Al Pilcher. Other bottles which 8. LYNN BOYD REGIST. certainly could have been DRUGGIST JEROME, included are the Timerhoff ARIZ. [Fig. 4] bottle from Flagstaff, W.W. Boyd's drugstore opened in Ross extract style bottle, Owl the mining town of Jerome in Drug from Yuma, Douglas 1899. In 1903 Lynn added P.S. Drug Toilet Lotion, either of the Boyd as a partner. The two two additional pharmacy operated the Store until 1909 bottles from Mesa, and the when it was sold to E.C. large size Worner's Rattler Oil Mitchell. This very rare bottle bottle. was a one of a kind until I'm sure I've forgotten a few. several additional examples Well these are the rarest of the were discovered during the rare in Arizona medicine and construction of the Phoenix pharmacy bottles. Next time Civic Center. we'll talk 'Hutch"sodas. 9. AMERICAN DRUG Mike Miller, 9214 W. Gary STORE JESUS Road, Peoria, AZ 85345; SALDAMANDO, PROP., Ph: (623) 486-3123; E-mail: NOGALES, ARIZONA [email protected]