Stief's Drugstore

Back in the late 40s, early 50s, Stief's drugstore resided on the Northeast corner at the intersection of Main and Centre streets - the very center of Shenandoah.
There were other local drugstores in town but they were much smaller and less "grand". Click HERE to see a picture of the corner as it looks today (picture taken in 1998).

It was essentially one large room with a very high ceiling. The main entrance was on Main Street and upon entering, one could see a soda fountain on one side of the room (north wall?) and the pharmacy counter on the other (south side?). The center of the room was filled with display shelves containing all the usual over-the-counter drugstore items, cosmetics, etc.

The most interesting area to me was the balcony that was situated about one floor up on the back wall of the building. There were tables and chairs up there and I can remember attending a birthday party on that balcony for Judy Rynn. Our ice cream orders were sent up to us on a dumb waiter that we worked by pulling on ropes. It was at that party that I tasted banana ice cream for the first time.

Somewhere off the balcony was a small room with a step ladder that led up to the roof. During the war, volunteer aircraft observers would spend days and nights up there watching for German and Japanese airplanes. I spent one very cold evening there with my father. As a character in the book "Andoshen" observed, bombers looking down at the town from the air would think that it had already been bombed and would just fly on over it. At the time, there were several roofless empty hulks of old factory buildings spread around the town. One that I recall was located on the western corner of the same block as the Capital theater.

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