Harmon Drug

   Interior of Harmon Drug

This photo was probably taken around 1906 since there are both electric and kerosene lights in the building.  The flags to the rear of the building are 45 star flags.  Oklahoma became the 46th state in November 1907 and De Leon got electric lighting in 1906.

Guy H. Harmon is standing at the cash register second from the right sporting a bow tie.  The marble counter has a row of dispensers visible just behind the back edge of the counter.  What appears to be a Tiffany lamp is actually a dispenser with faucets.  Notice the counter clock, the stained glass built into the corners of the rear counter and and tear drop shaped lamps.  It appears that the rear cabinets are basically filled with books.  Copies of paintings hang above those cabinets.  Two guitars hang behind the fourth man from the right and the center counter is filled with cigars and tobacco products.  A spittoon  is on the floor.

The Harmon Drug legacy is difficult to follow with 100% accuracy.  Around 1905, Guy H. Harmon apparently acquired L.L. Thomas and Co., a drug store which occupied the building shown at the left.

A fire in January 1919 destroyed the drug store along with the adjacent stores, Weaver Drug (to the right of Harmons) and F.L. Terrill’s store (to the left).  Harmon apparently moved his store to the Ayers building.  In the 1920’s Harmon sold his interest to  D. Tomlin who in turn sold to Dr. J.T. Plemmons and his son O.E. Plemmons.   In October 1934 Plemmons moved to the site of Rush and Rush Drug in the Hampton building.  The Kinnard family acquire that store from the Plemmons and operated it as De Leon Drug selling to Lex Shelby in 1953.

Harmon apparently moved to Corsicana after selling to Tomlin but returned to De Leon reestablishing his store in the Ayers building.  In December 1938 he again sold the store, this time to Robert Guinn.  Guinn later moved the store two doors south eventually selling to C.G. Maxwell in the early 1950s.  Maxwell closed the store in the late 60s but its location was reoccupied when the Hampton Building burned on March 20, 1970 forcing Shelby Pharmacy to secure a temporary location. Shelby used the Guinn/Maxwell building until a new pharmacy was built at Texas and Ross St. a few years later.

BELOW:  Harmon’s later opened in the Ayers building on the southwest corner of Texas and Reynosa.  Note the Dairyland Ice Cream ad on the sign. (Photo was probably taken in 1935.  Plemmons  Drug had moved in 1934 and Texas Ave. was paved in 1936.)

RIGHT:  Some years later Guy Harmon waits on De Leon’s longtime photographer C.L. Huddleston at the same counter.  Note the wooden barrel which was probably for root beer and the beverage glass on the counter.