Our Loveland Location Way Back When and Now

February 01, 2019 4 Comments

Our Loveland location as it appears today.

Last year, we found out that part of our Hyde Park store was a tailor’s shop from about 1940 to the early 1970s. Before that, it was a butcher shop. Before we took over it was a bike shop, and previously to that, an art gallery.

When we opened our store in Loveland, we naturally wondered what businesses had been there before us. We knew that the building was constructed in 1955, and that right before we got the keys to the space was occupied by a financial services company. Beyond that, little was known to us about the shop.

Recently, however, Jeff Schamel posted a picture (below) on the Facebook page for our Loveland store. The image looks like it was taken not long after the building was completed. It shows the space we’re in now occupied by a Rexall Drug Store. Next door, where Montgomery Cyclery is today, was a supermarket.

The location of our Loveland store as it appeared in the late 1950s.

Rexall was a fixture in small towns across America going back to 1902. That was the year the newly formed United Drug Company began to partner with local pharmacists across the U.S. Under the agreement, the local pharmacy would become a Rexall franchise, with United Drug Company supplying medicine and a range of products that grew to include candy, perfume, and stationery supplies.

The company later expanded into Canada and over to Great Britain. The Canadian Rexall eventually came to be owned by Canadians until recently when it was sold to the American company McKesson. Oddly, the Rexall Canada website states the company goes back to the beginnings of the United Drug Company but later states it has “no affiliation with the Rexall name as it is used in the United States.” Rexall is still a major pharmacy chain in Canada.

Meanwhile, back in the States, Rexall and the United Drug Company went through a  series of acquisitions and name changes starting in th1 1940s. In 1977, the parent company, now called Dart Industries, sold the drug store business. The new owners eliminated the franchise system and marketed Rexall products to bigger chains. Pharmacies that operated under the Rexall name were allowed to keep doing so. In 1986, the operation was sold to a vitamin supplement company.

While the Loveland location closed years ago, of course, many independent drug stores across the U.S., mostly in small towns, still use the Rexall name. The nearest is located in the Tristate in a small town called Osgood which, believe it or not, is in Ripley County, Indiana.

What business came after Rexall is unknown to us, but we’re sure long-time Loveland residents know. Coincidentally, Loveland resident Kate Arnold, whose grandfather was the tailor who previously had his shop in part of our Hyde Park location, mentioned to us that her dentist, when she was a child, had offices on the upper floor of the building, now occupied by the Loveland Music Academy.

Do you know what was on the corner of West Loveland Ave? and Karl Brown Way after Rexall Drug and before Edward Jones Investments? Let us know in the comments below!

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