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.