Wild's Drug Store

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fixture in downtown Huntington for nearly 70 years, Wild’s Drug Store
 began as a partnership between Herman Wild and H.O. Boette.
 As shown in the 1907 photograph, the store was first
 located in the Florentine Hotel building.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HUNTINGTON — On January 21, 1902, Herman Wild and H.O. Boette, who came to
Huntington from Parkersburg, purchased from Floyd C. Crider a drug store
that Crider had operated in the Florentine Hotel building on the
southeast corner of 4th Avenue and 9th Street.

The two men paid $750 for the business and all its contents — counters,
 showcases, a prescription case, shelving, an electric fan, light
 fixtures, screens, an awning, window shades, a cash
 register, a linoleum floor covering, bottles and
 boxes, prescription drugs, other medicines,
toilet articles, cigars, cigarettes and
various other items
of merchandise.

In 1921, when they were displaced from the Florentine Hotel
 building, they moved their store across the street to
405 9th St., next door to the Hotel Farr (later to
 be renamed the Hotel Governor Cabell).

In 1936, Herman Wild bought out his partner’s interest,
 and the business was renamed Wild’s Drug Store.

Ten years later, Wild sold the store to Harry
 Thompson, a pharmacist who had been
working for him for many years.

Thompson retained the Wild’s Drug Store name. Similarly,
 when George W. Campbell took over the business in
the mid-1960s, it was still known
 as Wild’s Drug Store.

A fixture in downtown Huntington for nearly 70
 years, Wild’s Drug Store was last listed in
the Huntington City Directory in 1969.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Aug. 11, 2020.

-----------------------------------------------------------

[ Back ]