Fordham Drugs at 514 South Elm Street

Every so often, we like to pass by 514 South Elm Street to check on Fordham Drug Store. It was founded in 1898, but has been closed since 2002. The architecture is in the Italianate style, so popular at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Greensboro still has many examples of this style building. The building has not changed much since it was built  123 years ago. It has the large glass windows, wooden floors, a tin ceiling, and the plaster mortar and pestle on top of the facade.*

While it has since tipped over, there is still a FOR SALE sign in the window. Given all of the history the building has in the Greensboro community, it was be so nice for it to retain as much of its original character as possible. Even the mosaic tile at the entrance says "Fordham's Drug Store." The 500 block of South Elm Street has so many history buildings. You can read more about them here. Not unlike having a CVS and a Walgreen's drug store right beside each other today, just down the street at 530 South Elm, was an O. Henry drug store. From today's photo, there is not a lot to reveal that the photo was not taken 100 years ago; perhaps the unidentified woman would have been reading a newspaper and not a cell phone and there wouldn't have been incense for sale on the street. What would you like to see this building become?

 

* Here is an article about Fordham's from 2016 in Our State Magazine.

Comments

[William Kendall]

I am surprised it's remained empty.