Then & Now: Vinson’s Pharmacy

“Then and Now” photos are an excellent way to explore the passage of time. In this special post, I have combined one of Lewis Reed’s original photograph’s for “then” and matched it with a corresponding contemporary shot for “now”. Taken approximately 114 years apart, these photos show Vinson’s Pharmacy in Rockville, then and now.

Vinson’s Pharmacy (THEN): Vinson’s Pharmacy was built in the 1880s and was run by Robert William “Doc” Vinson from 1900 until his death in 1958. The store had previously been owned and/or operated by several men, including D.F. Owens and E.T. Fearon. The drugstore was a popular gathering place for city politicians, and that President Woodrow Wilson once personally traveled there to buy Wolfhound tablets.

Most roads in Montgomery County, even those running  though towns, were dirt. In the photo below, taken in downtown Rockville, a delivery wagon can be seen at the curb, as well as advertisements for Coca-Cola, which would have been a product only 20 years old at that time, having been invented and trademarked in 1887. Trolley tracks bisect Montgomery Avenue. Previous to Edgar Reed’s enlistment in World War I, he had been employed as a clerk by Vinson’s Drug Store for eight years. In 1919, Edgar became a partner with his brother, Lewis Reed, in the firm Reed Brothers Dodge.

Rockville looking east down Montgomery Avenue at Perry Street (now Maryland Avenue); Vinson’s Pharmacy is on the corner. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1906

Vinson’s Pharmacy (NOW): The building was torn down in 1962 and replaced with an office building during Rockville’s “urban renewal”.

2019 location of Vinson’s Pharmacy on the corner of Montgomery and Maryland Avenue.