Stickney & Griffis Drug Store

Carol Robertson White, Local Historian, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 25, 2017

Local historian Carol Robertson White is a wealth of information concerning Rutherford County History.  She contributes historical treasures on a regular basis.

Stickney & Griffis operated at 115 North Maple Street, Murfreesboro, Tennessee from 1924 till 1983.

Richard H. Stickney

Stickney & Griffis operated at 115 North Maple Street, Murfreesboro, Tennessee from 1924 till 1983.

Parade in Murfreesboro. I see Brinkley’s Store, Arnette’s Meat Market and Aultman’s. According to C.B. Arnette, Mink Slide to Main Street, this would have been the south-east side of the square.

Gertrude Douglas’s room is where the X is 521 East Main Street Murfreesboro. As Gertrude was born in 1891 she would have been 22 when the tornado hit Murfreesboro. Gertrude married Richard Stickney two years later in 1915 when she was 24.

A tornado hit downtown Murfreesboro at 3:00AM on March 23, 1913. Gertrude’s childhood home on Main Street is among the photos. (Photo Collection of Richard Henry Stickney Family)

Recently Carol contributed the following photos and memories of the iconic Stickney & Griffis Drug Store, located on the historic Rutherford County Square for more than 65 years…

From Carol Robertson White:  “Stickney & Griffis Drug Store – 65 years of service to Murfreesboro – shared with me by Rae Lynn Stickney and the Richard Henry Stickney family of Murfreesboro, Tennessee photo collection.  Rae and I have been collaborating our family tree research for a few years now.  She gave me permission to publish the photos here for your enjoyment.”

From C.B. Arnette’s ‘Minkslide to Main Street’,  p. 197:

In 1915, R.H. Stickney and R.W. Vickers began a drugstore business in F-117 (117 North Maple Street). Mr. Vickers owned the building at that time and for several years thereafter. He also conducted a real estate business in an office on the second floor.

In 1920, Ed Griffis bought the interest of Mr. Vickers and thus began the long and well-known partnership of Stickney and Griffis. They remained in F-117 until about 1924. At that time, they moved next door to F-115.

Jim Crichiow and DeWitt Smith were the owners of F-115 (115 North Maple Street). That is where the Stickney and Griffis Drug Company was to move in about 1924. Their sign was to remain above the entrance of the store for fiftynine years, until 1983.

I recall visiting the book department of the store in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The store kept all of the issues in hardback of the ‘Tom Swift series. There must have been more than twenty of them. The books sold for fifty cents each. The store kept a soda fountain and short-order counter. There were the familiar Coca-Cola tables and chairs on the left of the store’s entrance. That was one of the favorite teenage gathering places in town. Harry Gannaway was the well-known pharmacist who worked there for many years.

Mr. Ed Griffis died in 1978. Mr. Stickney continued opening the store until 1983. An auction was held at which all of the furniture and
fixtures were sold. Mr. Stickney died in 1985.