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Kiser's Drug opened in the C&O Building in 1936. This photo was taken in 1956.
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HUNTINGTON -- Back before corporate chains came to dominate the pharmacy
business,
it seemed
like downtown Huntington had a drug store on virtually every other street
corner.
One of the
best known was Kiser's Drugs, opened by registered pharmacist Ivan B. Kiser in
1936.
Located on the ground floor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Building on the
southwest corner of
4th Avenue and 11th Street, the store became known for its
slogan,
"If You Don't Know Drugs, You Better Know Your Druggist."
A graduate of
Huntington High School and the school of pharmacy at West Virginia University,
Kiser was a World War I veteran. In an era before credit cards became
commonplace,
he filled prescriptions on credit, offered free delivery of
prescriptions
by taxi and operated a popular lunch counter.
Today we
think nothing of calling a pharmacy at night and leaving a recorded prescription
request,
but it was still a novel notion in 1960 when Kiser installed an
automatic telephone answering
set to record incoming calls after the store had
closed for the night. Orders phoned in during
the night were promptly filled
"the next morning," Kiser explained
in a newspaper story announcing the new
service.
On Kiser's
death in 1964, the drug store was purchased by registered pharmacist B. Max
Wetherall,
a graduate of Huntington East High School and the school of pharmacy
at the
University of Cincinnati, who retained the Kiser's Drugs name on the
store.
When Kiser's
Drugs closed, Glenn's Sporting Goods took over its corner spot on 4th Avenue.
That was in 1970. In January of this year, Glenn's moved to a new 3rd Avenue
location where it shares space with Mack and Dave's.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Oct. 06 , 2014
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