ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the origin and evolution of the great American institution, the community pharmacy. The American community pharmacy has come a long way from the small doctor's shops of colonial times to the ubiquitous and convenient chain store pharmacies of today. Long gone are the days of the pharmaceutist who personally compounded every drug he sold. Pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially after the Civil War increasingly rendered compounding obsolete, compelling the pharmacist to find other ways to stay in business. By the 1860s, drugstores became general stores and emporiums that relied on selling sideline products of every sort in order to stay in business. Some drugstores embarked on installing soda fountains and later featured restaurants. From the 1890s through the early 1970s the drugstore soda fountain served as a community gathering place that inspired a folklore of its own.
