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Berryville says goodbye to pharmacy lunch counter
Recently, Berryville parted with a longstanding fixture on Main Street when the lunch counter at Berryville Pharmacy was removed.
Co-owner Sharon Vinson explained that the counter was in poor condition, which is why it was removed. In its place, she said the pharmacy plans to display a new Hallmark card collection.
While coffee had remained available at the counter until its removal, food had not been served there since 2003. But in its heyday, the lunch counter was bustling with activity.
Several tables and booths were also part of the atmosphere at Berryville Pharmacy in years past.
Bob Sherwood, vice president of Berryville Main Street, said he believes the stories are true that Sen. Harry Byrd used to run Virginia politics from the tables near the door in the 1930s and 1940s.
Sherwood said Byrd, a local apple orchard tycoon, gathered daily with his staff, and the group was known as the "Byrd Machine."
Berryville Pharmacy, located at 8 W. Main St., is currently owned by pharmacists Randy and Sharon Vinson. The exact age of the building is unknown, but it may date back prior to 1912, when records began to be kept.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the town was hopping on weekend evenings, due to the pool hall and movie theater. Sherwood said the only public restroom in town was on the pharmacy's second floor.
Clarke County resident Herman Lloyd, now President Emeritus of the Clarke County Historical Association, grew up in Berryville in the 1930s and 1940s, and has fond memories of the lunch counter and tables at the pharmacy.
Lloyd said a group of women called the "Rat Club" used to meet at the pharmacy, and a group of men also met for coffee.
"There were a group of guys who got hooked on Bromo-Seltzer, and it got so bad they were going to the pharmacy four and five times a day," Lloyd remembered. "They had a cage with dice in it, and they would shake it see who paid for the round."
"Then Dr. Tapper told them they were endangering their health, and they had to give it up," Lloyd said. "I can still see those blue bottles."
Lloyd lived for several years in the house that is now the Clarke County Library on Main Street.
"Main Street was my playground," he said.
Lloyd described the former layout of the pharmacy: The lunch counter, tables and booths used to be where the checkout register and medical merchandise are now located, and on the other side were gifts for sale.
"The kids would get into the booths, and quite a few of us could squeeze in at one time," Lloyd remembered. "Those booths could get rowdy."
Some of the items he remembers purchasing at the lunch counter include sandwiches such as chicken salad, tuna and grilled ham for 15 cents. An olive sandwich was 5 cents more, costing a whole 20 cents.
"The sandwiches were out of this world," Lloyd said.
Also at the counter were sodas, phosphates, Coca-Cola with a variety of flavored syrups, milkshakes and sundaes. Sodas were a nickel and milkshakes were 10 cents.
Lloyd left Berryville and worked as a school principal in Fairfax for 30 years. When he returned in 1986, he sold his mother's house and moved into his home on U.S. 7 across the road from Nall's Farm Market.
By that time, the booths were gone and only the lunch counter remained.
"It was some kind of good, and I hate to see it go," Lloyd said.
More information on Berryville's history can be found in the book "Berryville Celebrates," available through the Clarke County Historical Association. Contact them at 540-955-2600.
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