Museum Exhibit Celebrates Oldest Operating Pharmacy in the US

A museum in Pennsylvania is celebrating what has been touted as the oldest, continuously operating drugstore in the country.

Allison-Antrim Museum in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, is commemorating the 190th anniversary of Carl’s Drug Store with a special exhibit from July through September 2015.

Pharmacy founder Adam Carl arrived in Greencastle in April 1825 and opened the store in his home that same month, according to the museum. Since then, the pharmacy has had 7 different addresses within the borough.

In 1888, Adam Carl passed the business onto his grandson Charles Carl, who operated the store until he died in 1935. At that point, Charles’ son Edward Carl took over and was the last member of the Carl family to operate the pharmacy.

A man named Frank H. Ervin bought Carl’s Drug Store in 1974, according to the museum.

Its exhibit features several items from the pharmacy’s early days, including Adam Carl’s leather medicine kit, apothecary bottles, scales and weights, and “tooth keys,” which were used to extract diseased teeth.

The museum also partnered with Ervin, who has lent some of Adam Carl’s books, images, and his medical diploma. Ervin’s collection also includes old mortars and pestles, bowler hats worn by Charles Carl, and other items from the pharmacy circa the 1800s and 1900s.

December 16, 2015, will mark the 215th anniversary of Adam Carl’s birth, according to The Record Herald.