Local Pharmacies Were Ticket Agents for Excursions to Rock Springs Park

Being from a family who owned more than half a dozen drugstores in the Tri-State Area (Herche's Rexall), it was interesting to discover, while reading The Beaver Daily Times, June 28, 1940, that local businesses, including many pharmacies, acted as ticket agents for steamboat excursions to Rock Springs.


Rochester, PA – Fun-lovers will leave the Rochester wharf Monday morning, July 8, at 9:30 on the excursion boat “Senator” for the annual boat ride and outing of the Rochester Board of Trade at Rock Springs Park. A capacity crowd of 3,000 people is expected to make the boat trip to the park. Roy Fisher, chairman of the ticket committee, has established convenient agencies at which tickets can be obtained. Get your tickets before Monday. None will be sold at the boat. Here are the established ticket agencies. Go get’em now!

Rochester - Powell’s Grocery, Hetzel’s Drug Store, Gordon’s Pharmacy (see tin), Kunsman Brothers, Clyde Batto market, Paul Huth, Campbell’s Confectionary; Freedom – Hartzel Furniture Company (see video); Bridgewater – Bruehl’s News Agency; Beaver - Bloom’s Pharmacy; New Brighton – Geyer Cook’s Pharmacy; Monaca – Citizens Pharmacy

Curious to see if any of these local businesses are still around in the Beaver area, I did a quick search and discovered that none, like my own family’s stores, are still in existence. A search result for Monaca pharmacies says it all: "CVS Pharmacy” and “Walmart Pharmacy, Monaca, Pa.”

This home movie footage uploaded to You Tube by Don Fraser shows Hartzel Furniture Company in 1941, a year after this article was written.