The age-herald., 1899-07-23
BIRMINGHAM AS A DRUG CENTER

The development of the drug business in Birmingham has fully kept pace with the
 growth of other commercial lines and the
 development of Birmingham industrially. Some fifteen years ago, while some of the large retail druggists in Birmingham
 furnished the country physicians with their
 wants and supplies some of the smaller country stores with few staple drugs and medicines, no wholesale drug business was carried on in Birmingham, to speak, At that time the retail drug stores in this city, well as those from the interior, were drawing most of their supplies from
 other cities, principally from St. Louis,
 Louisville, Nashville and New Orleans. The first strictly wholesale drug business was opened up here on a comparatively
 small scale in 1889 by Nabers, Morrow & Snnige in the store room, 25xS0, on Second avenue, opposite the Florence hotel where they remained for one year. Needing more room, they moved in 1890 to larger and more commodious quarters on Morris ave- nue and Twenty-first street, occupying the then new two-story brick building, 50 x 100 feet. Their retail establishment was conducted separately at No 2012 First ave- nue until 1892, when they consolidated the two departments by moving to the corner of First avenue and Twenty-first street in the four-story brick building built for them
 
 mained till 1897. This constantly growing business, together with desire to be un- der their own roof, caused the erection of their present quarters, Nos. 109-111 Twen- tieth street. This is one of the handsomest buildings in the city, and is equipped with all the modern time and labor saving ap- piances. The building is a fve-story brick with splendid basement and floor capac- ity of 2,000 square feet, where today they carry on the largest wholesale drug busi- ness in Alabama.
 In 1896 Dr. Amzi Golden who up to that time conducted one of the leading retail drug stores in the city on the corner of Twenty-flrst street and Second avenue, all so feeelng the necessity of increa sed cap- ital and better facilities to take care of his increasing business, incorporated under the name of The Anzi Golden Co.,. and they re-
 moved to their present quarters on Second avenue, where they carry on a large whole sale drug business, and especially their business in field and garden seeds has grown to very large proportions, and they now looking for additional room to | take the proper care of it.
 Birmingham has nineteen retail drug stores and two wholesale establishments The wholesale houses, besides supplying the retail trade of the city, to a large extent ship their goods over the. greater part of Alabama, and in such sections of Georgia Mississippi and Florida as existing freight rates will permit. The aggregate wholesale sales of drugs, patent medicines, druggists sundes, etc., amount to about $400 900 to $4509000 annually, and with a continued prosperity in all lines of business as well as the steadily increasing development of the state at large, industrially and agricultur- ally, there is no reason why Birmingham should not ere long become one of the 1 largest distributing drug markets in this section of the south.