Mid-Century Charm

MID-CENTURY

By Cherwyn Cole Photographs by Efren Lopez/Route66Images

MID-CENTURY CHARM

Once upon a time in small-town

America, the mom-and-pop business was a way of life. And everyone had a specialty. Just like the children’s rhyme — “the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker” — the main streets of America were lined with the shops and stores of merchants and craftspeople who each knew their niche. Local citizens shopped according to their needs — a birthday cake from the bakery or a typewriter ribbon from the office supply store or pork chops from the butcher’s shop. And travelers and visitors in town were the icing on someone’s cake, shopping for what they forgot from back home, or a gift for their hosts, or a souvenir to remember the place.

But what seems almost like a fairy tale today still exists here and there, albeit sometimes in the shadows of the big-box stores. Girard, Illinois, has a legacy of being one of those small towns, charmingly complete with a big town square, ringed by two-story red brick storefronts of the early-1900s commercial architecture variety. Stories of its long-time merchants have endured through years and generations. Although the little town itself now suffers from the same afflictions that most small towns across the country endure — empty store buildings and a lack of all the shops and services. But the town’s simple magic and draw still beckon to visitors.

The Deck Pharmacy

In 1865, Dr. B.F. Clark established a pharmacy in a storefront on the west side of the Girard square, with a medical office upstairs. Lewis Deck, a 36-year-old local one-room schoolteacher and son of area farmer Jacob Deck, became a partner in the pharmacy in 1884, beginning the Deck family’s 117 years of pharmacy operation in the same location at 133 South Second Street. Lewis Deck bought out Dr. Clark before Clark died in 1895, becoming the sole owner and manager. From then on, it was known as Deck’s Drug Store, although back in the day, it was nicknamed “the white drug store,” because at the time it was the only white storefront on the square. In addition to medication, the drug store also sold hardware and groceries.

Lewis Deck’s sons, Harry and Wyman, took over the business around 1917, not long before their father’s death in 1918. Wyman installed a soda fountain, a popular feature in many pharmacies, in 1929. Actually, most drug stores across America had a soda fountain by the early ‘20s. This fulfilled the need for a social gathering spot, along with the provision of a beverage, to replace the neighborhood tavern, shuttered by Prohibition beginning in 1919. From teens to seniors, gathering at the local soda fountain was an American tradition through the 1960s, and one that added revenue to a drug store business. “It was a mainstay for kids to get out of school and go up to the soda fountain and have ice cream or sodas,” said Jeanette Earley, President of the Girard Chamber of Commerce.

Wyman Deck and his wife Naomi had two sons, Bill in 1927 and Bob in 1930. The brothers would eventually take over the business from their father and operate it together. Bob, a Korean War veteran, was the pharmacist and manager, and Bill, who also served as librarian for the Auburn public schools, was the pharmacy technician. About the time that the brothers took over the operation, a major change in the role of pharmacists occurred nationally. Pharmacists had been allowed to prescribe and dispense any medicine except for narcotics. But a 1951 amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 restricted pharmacists to dispensing medicines only with a physician’s prescription.

Bill and Bob, reminiscing about the old days in a 2012 video, told how they continued the family tradition of making root beer themselves in kettles in the back room. They recalled selling the root beer for a nickel a glass, and remembered their establishment being the town gathering place for many years, where locals would buy a soda or a root beer and make it last until their conversations were over. Like other pharmacy soda fountains, they offered flavored Cokes, long before Cherry Coke was available in an individual can, by adding lemon, chocolate, orange, or cherry syrup from a gallon jug.

The Deck Boys

In the 1980s, Deck’s Drug Store was still percolating through the decade with the two Deck brothers at the helm. The rest of the little downtown was surviving as well, with the local Crown Mine re-opened in 1973. Illinois Route 66 had been decommissioned in 1977, and the Mother Road’s revival would not begin until the ‘90s. Microchips, Nintendo, and cable television contributed to the ever-widening gap between “the present” and the legendary ‘50s, despite efforts to recreate the Mid-Century economic boom. But by 1985, American society had pretty much forgotten the charm and the kitsch of the Mid-Century years.

However, important to our story, something else significant happened in 1985. A young married couple named Robert and Renae Ernst opened a furniture restoration business at their home outside of Girard. “I grew up remodeling houses,” said Robert. “My dad was a schoolteacher. So, after school

Robert and Renae Ernst sitting inside Doc’s Soda Fountain and the Deck Pharmacy Museum.

and during the summer we were actually building and remodeling houses. I blame all this [furniture business] on my dad!”

Renae’s experience was a little different. “My college degree is in biology and chemistry. I was on track to be a medical technologist, [but] after we got married and started the business, that just kind of took over everything.”

The business grew and in 1989 the Ernsts decided to move their operation to a corner building on the west side of Girard’s square. And it was here in downtown Girard that Robert and Renae Ernst met Bob and Bill Deck, the friendly owners of Deck’s Drug Store. “They became close friends, just like family to us, and they would come to Thanksgiving and to Christmas with us, for a long time,” said Renae.

In the 1990s, the Ernsts moved their upholstery and drapery business into what Girard residents knew as the “old hardware store,” at 145 S. Second Street, where they are still located. Next door to them were two storefronts in use by the Decks — the original home of the pharmacy plus an additional space in between Deck’s Drug Store and the Ernsts’ business. These three storefronts comprised one handsome red brick two-story building of the typical Midwestern brick commercial architecture type, with a row of dentil molding across the top of the facade and nine second-story windows with Italianate-style window arches. It was a fitting home, not only for an 1800s-vintage pharmacy, but also for the Ernsts’ two businesses: The Furniture Doctor and Renae’s Window Fashions.

After Route 66 enthusiasts “discovered” the historic pharmacy around the ‘90s, Bill and Bob Deck had an additional job — besides maintaining their pharmacy clientele, they found themselves in the tourism business.

Their stories of the “old days” were a big draw to the little-changed drug store, along with the marble-topped soda fountain that their father, Wyman Deck, had installed back in 1929. Ice cream, sodas, and home-made root beer became as popular with tourists as the hometown regulars. And visitors marveled at the wall of original wooden cabinets and drawers crafted long ago to display or store inventory and drug store supplies. Apothecary and medicine glass bottles once containing plant extracts and inorganic ingredients, herbals and various pharmaceuticals, lined the shelves, harkening back to the golden era of the American Drugstore.

However, by 2001, the “Deck boys,” as they’re still affectionately known in Girard, decided that it was time to retire. Bill was 74 years old, and Bob was 71, and they were the third and final generation of the Deck family to own and operate the drug store. They ceased operation of the pharmacy and sold their business.

Several operators were in and out over the next half-dozen years, with less-than-ideal results. The store had been left to run down and was in a pretty bad state. Not wanting to see the soda fountain and the tourism draw of the historic drugstore die, the Ernsts stepped in and purchased it.

“But before we bought the drug store, we went to the Decks. They still owned the middle building — they had an antique store in it,” said Robert. “We asked them, ‘Would you give us first opportunity when you sell, to buy the middle store?’ and they said ‘yes’ they would. And so, because of that we went ahead and bought the middle store, because we knew we needed it as well.”

That “middle store,” which had most recently been used as an antique shop by Bill and Bob Deck, became, in effect, a small restaurant, with a kitchen installed at the back to prepare sandwiches, salads, and desserts. (The Ernsts declined to fry foods lest the grease settle on the valuable pharmacy antiques.) In front of the kitchen toward the windows, a roomy seating area was added, providing a pleasant, lightfilled space for lunch customers, groups, and occasional programs. A giant world map was attached to one wall of the new dining area, which is by now well covered with colored pins marking visitors’ hometowns. With white-painted walls, red trim and tablecloths, and old-time memorabilia gracing the walls, Renae’s decorative touches turned the old building into an old-fashioned, welcoming lunch room.

Of course, customers could still sit down with their ice cream treats at one of the half-dozen tables in the adjoining Doc’s Soda Fountain itself. Or better still, sit on one of the stools at the soda fountain’s counter for a close-up view of the sweet goodness being dished up.

“We did not take it on intending for it to be a full-fledged restaurant. We started out just with the soda fountain, serving sodas and ice cream,” Renae added.

The Ernsts’ purchase of Deck’s Drug Store plus the “middle store” in between the pharmacy and the Furniture Doctor were finalized in 2007. Robert and Renae meticulously took the pharmacy’s facade back to a classic turn-of-the-lastcentury storefront, and happily, the 1929 soda fountain was mostly intact and ready to be put into service after a good clean-up. To indicate that the business would no longer be operating as a pharmacy, and that its primary appeal would be as an old-fashioned soda fountain, the Ernsts changed the name from Deck’s Drug Store to Doc’s Soda Fountain, also reflecting Robert’s nickname, the “Furniture Doc.”

Putting Doc’s Soda Fountain squarely on the Illinois Route 66 map, the Ernsts have thoroughly enjoyed the international, as well as domestic, visitation to their little slice of Americana. In the now 14 years of their ownership and operation, it’s been a gratifying experience to have preserved both the soda fountain experience and the Deck pharmacy museum.

The pharmacy museum has a collection of old inventory, medicines, homeopathic remedies, and pharmacy tools and supplies that piled up over many decades. “As the business started changing hands, that’s when a lot of the antiques that were upstairs, started being brought down into Doc’s and put on display,” Jeanette recalled.

“The pharmacy museum is the legacy that Bob and Bill left to us. That’s really worth people taking their time and energy to come in and look at. It’s really like stepping back in time from 1884 to 2001. [There was] a lot of [interesting] inventory from the pharmacy that was left over, but they were [products and supplies] that were in common use at that time,” said Renae.

After the Ernsts re-opened the long-time drug store as Doc’s Soda Fountain, both Bob and Bill Deck visited often, eating lunch and telling stories of the “old days” to tourists. As visitors became intrigued with the thousands of pharmacy items on display, the brothers enjoyed explaining the uses of various medicines and equipment. Bill Deck was captured on

Getting the shop ready for the day.

video explaining a contraption called a “shock machine” and how it was operated by turning a crank. Bill explained that its purpose was to cure nervous conditions.

Along with the collections and memorabilia, the plaque commemorating the induction of “the Deck Brothers” into the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame in 2010 hangs on the wall. Authentic signage from the likes of CocaCola, Lilly Pharmaceuticals and Biologicals, Meadow Gold, and Pears Soap seems to be everywhere. Although now respectfully maintained by the Ernsts, the Deck’s Drug Store’s many decades of cast-offs, flotsam and jetsam, treasures, and valuable antiques are truly a wonder.

Bob Deck passed away in 2013 at the age of 82, and Bill in 2018 at 91. Both brothers are remembered as pillars of their community all across the Route 66 corridor as well as globally. But it was the Girard locals who really knew what a treasure they had in the Deck brothers. Neither Bill nor Bob married, and the love and devotion that they might have channeled toward offspring was lavished on their home community. It’s difficult to talk with anyone local about the brothers without the first comment being, “They really supported Girard. They were always bringing new people to town and encouraging new businesses.”

The Next Chapter Awaits

precedence — it’s part of the evolution of Route 66, and its businesses and families. Recently, after 14 years of ownership, Robert and Renae decided to put Doc’s Soda Fountain up for sale.

“The biggest [part of the] decision is me,” said Robert. “I’ve got a degenerative disease, so we have to concentrate on what our main business is, and it’s too much with Doc’s as well. We sure [have] enjoyed it, [but] we’re trying to get it sold to some other people who realize the value of Route 66. The advantage [for the new owners] will be that our two stores will continue to be next to it, so we can still share stories with people and still help the new owners. That’s what it’s all about. We think that’s a tremendous advantage for somebody else.”

“It’s our hope that somebody will reopen it as a restaurant, even though it’s got a limited kitchen and menu,” Jeanette said. “It had expanded enough that it was very helpful to people to get lunch in town. It evolved into a nice little restaurant.”

And so, the next chapter of Doc’s Soda Fountain and the Deck Pharmacy Museum awaits. Some special person, maybe waiting in the wings, or not yet having made their appearance, will realize that this business, this building, this legacy, is exactly their mission at this moment.