To my understanding, this is the only wood-framed building to have survived a large fire in Newborn’s commercial district in 1925.
Newborn Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
In 2000, SunTrust Bank donated these two buildings to the group that would become the board of the McDuffie Museum. The First National Bank of Thomson (1899) and Thomson Drugs (1904), integral to the lives of McDuffie Countians for much of the 20th century, now serve as a model local history museum.
Thomson Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The Rexall sign on the Bowman Drug store catches my eye every time I pass by it. I only wish the weather had been better this time. The skies were threatening the whole time, but I still enjoyed walking around this friendly little town, with its antique dealers and quaint old storefronts. Bowman was incorporated in 1907 but its origins date to the late 1870s, when a road connecting Elberton and Toccoa was cut through the area. Subsequently, a depot was located here and named for Colonel Thomas J. Bowman, who had surveyed the land.
Update: As of 2019, the old Rexall sign is gone.
Union Pharmacy and Rhodes & Kilgore Drugs were located next door to each other when Union Point was a much busier place than it is today. I believe Union Pharmacy (both photos below) is still open.
What could be cooler than ice cream floats and fortune telling scales?
Union Point Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Jeanne Bryan Insalaco writes: I was just there in October and the store, Johnson’s Pharmacy, next to the one on the corner is now boarded up; in April the roof was gone but you could still look inside. The corner store was originally The Bank Of Siloam, the vault is still inside. My cousins, Lawson and Ulma O’Neil McKinley owned it as a grocery/general store last. My grandparents lived in this town of Siloam, so I grew up around there and visit yearly – I also love to take photographs of areas before they are lost.
There’s a nice variety of commercial architecture in downtown Thomaston. I’m really surprised the downtown historic district isn’t on the National Register. I’m not sure when this was built, or what its original use was, but for many years it was the City Drug Company.
Knight’s is a real rarity these days, an independent pharmacy in a very small town that is a center of life in the community. They also have a coffee shop and selection of hand-dipped ice cream.