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UntitledROY'6 Ynormacy a..•we ^- --o - Thanks for the memories talking into the phone and never let a soul hear what he was saying or know to whom he was speaking." According to Mrs. Breed, she often took over for him on the switchboard. The pharmacy shared a roof with the Post Office on and off for twenty-five years, 'on' when a Democrat was in office and 'off' en a been elected. Willy K. Republican yhwas the e postmaster and a clerk would act as assistant postmaster. Mrs. Breed remembers the village as tree lined. Route 9 was called "the bypass' and nothing was out there but farmland. Young girls used to run to the feed and grain store to weigh them- selves. The town just over the bridge on Continued on Page 12 "Did anyone out there ever bear tell of a drugstore in Wappingers Falls called 'Roy's Pharmacy'?" That question was posed to readers ffter someone asked us for help in identifying a bottle marked Roy's Pharmacy. It was dated 1848 and had been dug up in a backyard. The response to Ye Olde News De tWel ie of ent from a two inch notice on page the November 8 issue was immediate. Some people had bottles, a few had stories and even pictures of Main Street in Wappingers Falls when Roy's Pharmacy coexisted with businesses the like ral f Director" and m Peacocbalmer ks Drug Store." But one had more than bottles and to her granddaughter. The store sold school supplies, paint and varnishes, cigars and chewing tobacco, mirrors, combs and brushes, stationery, perfume made in the United States and "medicinal" liquor and altar fwines amoussbyll as the express�ioner"takemade a powder." The drug store became Wappingers Falls first telephone exchange when Edna Breed was 14 or 15. The "Regular Hudson River Telephone Manual" had 23 Wappingers subscribers with a switchboard in the soda fountainless pharmacy. "The family didn't like the phone much," she said, "although Albert had a great telephone voice. He could be over th the corner of a quiet store pictures — she had memo . Mrs. Edna Estelle Roy Breed was born in Wappingers Falls in 1880. She married there. She is still grew up and an area resident todan Poughkeepsieapartment, she at her to weave a verbal history of managed the drug a d Young • liand out itsoors gain growing up going wasestablished in T Roy's Pharmacy 1848 by James Roy, Edna Breed's He ran the pharmacy until grandfather. his death in 1868• His widow carried on i the business with the help of her three James Staunton, William K. and sons, Albert M. Roy. "made a great Grandmother Roy success of the business;' Mrs. Breed "She in there all the time and said. was the boas without doubt." An article i I was from the time stated: "She is one of the business women in Dut- t best known chess County and possesses unusual h ability in that direction, besides being a a I lady of refinement and culture." Grandmother Roy was so highly f t regarded by the village's medical profession that when the New York e n State Board of Pharmacy was established she was sent a license to v practice without taking an exam. "She was really considered a member of the n n local medical profession," Mrs. Breed "When Johnny had a pain, 1, explained. people would come in and ask, 'What c should I give him?' He most probably t' was given castor oil. People often s skipped the doctor." Grandmother Roy lived above the store and did not go out often, according Edna Estelle Roy Breed today at as. newspaper account of the wedding. Edna Breed at 98 is still vital and charming. She seems to have escaped many Of the ueklnder effects of passing years. The phar- macy has not aged gracefully in comparison. When Willy K, the last Roy pharmacist, died, John A. Kenney bought the business about 1917. He purchased the building in 1972and ran the pharmacy me until ids death. Th tthe op of the three story building was damaged by fire under one of a succession of owners. Today, according to John Kenney's son who remembers living over the pharmacy Number 1 stands ei damned. A part Falls' hers apparently our sine Breed am timers wh shared diel as.