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103 E. Chapman St.

James Drug

E. Sheridan Properties, LLC

The former James Drug was built in 1887 for an Ely pioneer and his drug store business, A.S. James. It had been vacant for almost 10 years when the historic preservation project began in 2014. Over the next couple of years, it was renovated into retail and office space. New mechanical systems, windows and insulation as well as completely restored interior finishes were all part of the renovation. The building is now home to Crapola Granola and Potluck Modern and Vintage Kitchenware on the main level while entrepreneurs such as accountants, engineers, and web developers office out of the 2nd floor.

History

James Drug was the longest continuously running business in Ely before it closed its doors in the late 1990s. Pharmacist A. S. James and town doctor Shipman opened the drugstore beneath Dr. Shipman’s makeshift hospital in 1887, a year before Ely was incorporated.

After James died in 1916, his son Raub ran the store until 1944, followed by Raub’s widow, Elaine Fenske James, who rebuilt after a 1947 fire and kept it open until her death eight years later. George Berttula bought the business in 1959 and hired Lee Schumacher, who expanded it and kept it running for years to come.

The Project

When we first found this old pharmacy building, it was covered in half-log siding. We pulled the logs down to expose the original exterior, repaired the stucco and repainted, then insulated the previously bare walls.

Inside, the original decorative tin walls were uncovered and kept. We designed and built a new oak staircase with bronze hardware, added hardwood floors on the main level and shiplap walls in the small offices, and finished the upstairs offices, bathrooms and kitchen with turn-of-the-century light fixtures and flooring. Once vacant, it’s now a mixed-use office and retail building.

Then & Now

The Same Corner, a Century Apart

Under the log siding, the stucco building from this early photo was waiting all along. Tap either photo to see it larger.

The two-story stucco building on the corner in its early years, with awnings, a globe street light, early automobiles and a Post Office sign in the window — Early years, with a Post Office sign in the window

The restored stucco building today with red-trimmed windows and new storefronts — Today

A two-story wood-frame drug store on a dirt street, its side wall painted Drug Store, Duluth Universal Flour — The wood-frame drug store, its side wall painted for Duluth Universal Flour

Since 1887

The Drugstore on the Corner

The earliest photos show a two-story wood-frame drug store with striped awnings and big display windows, its staff lined up out front. By 1912, Chapman Street had new street lights, hydrants and sidewalks.

Over the next century the corner changed looks more than once, from wood clapboard to stucco, and later to the half-log siding we removed during the restoration.

1912 photo from the Brownell Collection, as described by Lee Brownell in Old Time Inconveniences.

Interior of James Drug Store in the early 1900s, with glass display cases, shelves of bottles and a tall stove in the middle of the room — Inside James Drug Store in the early 1900s

A Legend of Early Ely

The James Brothers

Abijah S. James was a young apothecary from Duluth who headed north to Ely and fell ill his first summer here. Dr. C. G. Shipman nursed him back to health and persuaded him to stay, and James soon opened the medicine shop that became the James Drug Store.

His brother Frank left his farm to join him, and the two built the store on Chapman Street. Frank left in 1895 for Two Harbors, where he started a James Pharmacy of his own. In the interior photo, A. S. James and his brother stand behind the counter on the left, with Dr. Shipman on the left and Dr. Moore seated at the left rear.

Story and photos from “James Drug Store holds history of Ely,” Ely Echo, August 22, 1973.

Mid-Century

James Rexall Drugs

After a fire in 1947, Elaine James rebuilt and kept the store going with the help of Elmer Kero. George Bertulla bought it in 1959, gave it a modern glass storefront with glass doors and stucco walls in 1960, and in 1967 bought the Tauzell Department Store, almost doubling the store’s floor space. Tap any photo to see it larger.

Store Windows

Windows on Downtown Ely

Early in World War II, a grocery store window operated by John Buccowich was filled with photos of about half of the 300 Ely men serving in the armed forces, and people lined up from dawn to dusk to see it. A few years later, City Meat & Grocery, “the biggest little store in town,” promoted the Ely Theatre’s showing of Hills of Home with free pictures of Lassie.

A store window filled with framed photos of Ely servicemen under Buy Defense Bonds signs, with a Duluth Herald caption below — Ely service men in a photo display, from the Duluth Herald

City Meat and Grocery window with a Hills of Home movie display, pictures of Lassie and stacks of Red Heart dog food — City Meat & Grocery promoting *Hills of Home* at the Ely Theatre

The Work

Peeling Back the Layers

Off came the old facades, the storefronts were opened down to their framing, and new glass, trim and tin ceilings went in, all the way to a ribbon cutting on First Avenue. Tap any photo to see it larger.

Special thanks to Mark and Dean at Kovall Construction for performing such fine work on this restoration.