Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary opened its doors in 1792 and remained in business until 1933.  More astonishing is that it remained in the family all those years.

The apothecary showed signs of changing with the decorative times.  There was a federalist structural style mingling with a Victorian style, and, maybe even, a tad of art deco.

Famous customers included the Washingtons and Robert E Lee.  There was even a hand-written note from Martha Washington on display requesting castor oil be sent to Mt. Vernon.

Stabler-Leadbeater was a large operation.  On the ground floor were your medicinal needs and other sundries.  I saw herbs and apothecary jars galore.  On the jars were real gold-leaf labels.  This was a sign of the apothecary's prestige.  Sundries included: shoe polish, baby bottles, Stabler-Leadbeater's own name brand perfumes, and medical devices for bloodletting and cupping.

On the second floor was the grande dame of medicines.  This is where all the cauldrons bubbled with medicines and pain relieving ingredients.  Stabler-Leadbeater would provide medicines by the wagonload to outlying apothecaries, and it was on the second floor that they would make them and ready them for distribution.  There were drawers (much like a library's card catalog but larger) up to the ceilings with everything from poke berries to dragon's blood even cocaine, marijuana, codeine, strychnine, mandrake root, and whatever else you can dream up.  Most of the action took place here. 

To throw some intrigue into this post, no one truly knows why the apothecary closed its doors.  It is known (without any inconsistencies) that Leadbeater was the last to walk out of the apothecary one day after work.  When he left he left the key and everything else in the apothecary.  No one ever came back, but a cryptic message is written in pencil on the second floor on a beam that reads "I am gone."