Unnerstall's Drug Store closed 25 years ago

Twenty-five years ago, the 600 block of Good Hope Street got a lot quieter. At the end of May 1997, Sam Unnerstall closed the drug store his father, Frank, established 70 years earlier.

In an article in the Southeast Missourian, Sam talked about his father, the business, and the changing times in Haarig.

Published May 27, 1997, in the Southeast Missourian:

Carol and Sam Unnerstall are closing Unnerstall's Drug Store at 630 Good Hope St. The Business has been open on Good Hope Street since 1927. (Lou Peukert ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

UNNERSTALL'S CLOSING AFTER 70 YEARS

By Sam Blackwell
Southeast Missourian

Sam Unnerstall was 10 years old when his father, Frank, moved the family drugstore into new quarters at 630 Good Hope St. Sam worked in the fountain and was in charge of comic books.

When Unnerstall's Drug Store closes Friday after 70 years in business on Good Hope Street, he said, "It's going to be hard to walk off and leave all these people."

Unnerstall's is one of the last of a group of businesses that once made the now nearly moribund Good Hope area one of the city's thriving commercial centers.

The site was occupied by a blacksmith shop in the early part of the century, when this section of Cape Girardeau was known as Haarig and was alive with the sounds of tradesmen at work and saloons.

Frank Unnerstall opened a drugstore in the block on Feb. 12, 1927. In 1934, he became the first Cape Girardeau retailer licensed to sell liquor after the repeal of Prohibition.

He moved the business to the current address in 1943. Sam joined the business in 1958 after graduating from pharmacy school, marrying and getting out of the Army. He eventually took over the business from his father, who died in 1978.

When the Orpheum Theatre was open on Good Hope, Unnerstall's did a good business making ice cream sodas and cherry Cokes. "The movie would get out at 10 or 11 and we stayed open until after the show," Unnerstall said. "And a lot of people would come in on Sunday morning and hang out."

Good Hope continued to be a busy commercial center into the 1950s and 1960s, with its own physicians, restaurants and grocers. The exodus of doctors to the Medical Arts Building on Broadway was the beginning of the business decline on Good Hope, at least from a pharmacist's point of view.

The Gladish-Walker furniture store, Hirsch Bros. mercantile, Sunny Hill feed store, Kinder's Drugs, Bierschwal's Meat Market, Cape Cut Rate Drugs, Farmers & Merchants Bank, a Kroger store, Cofer's men's store -- Unnerstall's stayed while all eventually either moved away from Good Hope Street or disappeared.

Unnerstall's Drug Store can be seen on the right in this photograph, taken on Good Hope Street in the 1950s. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

At one time, Unnerstall considered moving the store to the western part of the city, where most of the commercial expansion is occurring. "It would be like moving into a hornet's nest out there," he said.

Now the last pharmacy on the city's south side will soon be gone. Unnerstall plans to sell the building and transfer his prescriptions to another pharmacy.

The drugstore business has changed dramatically in his years as a pharmacist. "We used to do a lot of compounding," Unnerstall said. Now the medicines are mostly made by companies, and the small, family drugstore is nearly an anachronism.

Unnerstall's often gets calls from people seeking a medicine that's no longer made. "They think we might still have some," says a bemused Carol Unnerstall, Sam's wife and a part-time worker at the store.

Unnerstall's still stocks Rock Candy Crystals for those who prefer to make their own cough syrup. Just add whiskey.

Unnerstall's has never been robbed in all its years in business. It has, however, been closed due to inclement weather.

Cape Girardeans remember 1979 as the year of the great blizzard. Unnerstall spent three nights trapped in his store after a 24-inch snowfall paralyzed the city.

He had gone to the store that Saturday night to check on a broken window and decided to stay to insure against a burglary. It would be Tuesday night before he could go home.

He slept on the floor and ate the merchandise. "I had a lot of candy and chips," he said.

Two of the store's employees, Cheryl Cook and Sarah Williams, have worked there less than a year. But Don Bernhardt, a former pharmacist technician in the Army, has been employed at Unnerstall's for nearly 33 years.

"Don's been like family," Carol said.

He's looking for a job but knows, "I'm going to miss it."

The decision to quit business was made because Unnerstall is nearing retirement age and has back problems. He hopes they'll improve if retirement finds him spending less time on his feet.

He doesn't have any dramatic plans. "She's afraid I'm going to reorganize her kitchen and closets," he said, nodding at Carol. And their son might need a hand on his farm near Sedgewickville.

"I also have a grandson I'm going to be busy with," he said.

Once again, Sam Unnerstall is in charge of comic books.

Published June 2, 1997, in the Southeast Missourian:

Charlotte Craig, left, congratulated Carol and Sam Unnerstall on their retirement at a surprise luncheon Wednesday. The Unnerstalls are closing Unnerstall's Drug Store, which opened at 630 Good Hope in 1927. (Fred Lynch ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Frank Unnerstall acquired the Holloway Drug Store, 626 Good Hope St., after that operation went into bankruptcy in February 1927.