Vogue | How the Oldest Pharmacy in the U.S. Has Adapted During COVID-19
Since 1838, C.O. Bigelow has been serving New York City. "We've been here for 182 years—through world wars, blackouts, and 9/11," says president and owner Ian Ginsberg, the third generation to work at the family apothecary. "I don't want to say we're used to this, but this is what we were meant to do. We're the first place people call."
The oldest pharmacy in the U.S. has lived many lives. When it was first opened by Vermont Physician Dr. Galen Hunter, it was called The Village Apothecary Shoppe, and became an instant hit due in no small part to its first, cult-favorite formula Rose Wonder Cream. In 1880, Clarence Otis Bigelow, who had worked alongside Dr. Hunter, purchased the store and renamed it C.O. Bigelow, moving it to its current location at 102 Sixth Avenue, where Mark Twain would become a regular in 1902. Legend has it that while Thomas Edison was testing an early prototype of the light bulb, he soothed his burnt fingers with Bigelow's balm. During the early 1920s, a lunch counter and soda fountain were installed and would come to be frequented by many artists of the bohemian scene in the '50s and '60s. During President Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, wife Eleanor would seek respite from the White House at a friend's home on East 11th street, and became a faithful C.O. Bigelow customer, once sending a thank-you letter for a "set of toilet articles." It was in 1939 that William B. Ginsberg, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, purchased the store, eventually passing it on to his son, Jerry, in the '60s, before Ian acquired it in 1996.