Hudgins Drug Store


Company Names, addresses, dates:
   Hudgins Drug Store, 256 Main Street, Mathews, VA (1922-ca.1992) 1,2
  Hudgins Pharmacy, 256 Main Street, Mathews, VA (ca.1992-ca.2020) 2,3

Notes:
 Clarence Bernard Hudgins (1892-1962)4 started the Hudgins Drug store in 1922. He operated the store until retiring in 1958.1
He's usually listed as "C. Bernard Hudgins", so he presumably used his middle name.

His brother, Bailey D. Hudgins, was a pharmacist and a partner in the store. During WWII, he joined the US Navy.5

Also during WWII, C.Bernard took over the prescriptions of the Richardson Drug Store6.

In 1958, after C. Bernard Hudgins retired, the store was purchased by James Ross Lewis Sr. (1919-1995)7, who was a from Charlottesville8.

At some point, probably in the 1990s, the store was purchased by Robert May, who sold the store in 2016 to Dora Holdings of NJ.9

The store was closed by 2020, as that's when the building at 256 Main Street, referred to as the "Farmers and Fishermens Building", became a store called "The Vintage Pearl".3

Bottles:
hudgins_01 This is a clear 3.4" machine-made bottle with a label:
label: SPIRITS OF TURPENTINE / ... / HUDGINS DRUG STORE / PRESCRIPTION DRUGGISTS / MATHEWS, VIRGINIA


1 Virginian-Pilot and the Portsmouth Star, 27-Oct-1962, p.12 (Obituary for C. Bernard Hudgins)
2 Roanoke Times & World-News, 19-Apr-1992, p.19 (earliest refeerence to Hudgins "Pharmacy" vs. "Drug Store")
3 The Vintage Pearl web site says they started in 2020 at the site of former Hudgins Pharmacy)
4 Find-a-grave entry for Clarence Bernard Hudgins
5 Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal, 22-Oct-1942, p.1
6 Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal, 3-Dec-1942, p.5
7 Find-a-grave entry for James Ross Lewis
8 Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18-May-1995, p.20 (Obituary for James Ross Lewis Sr)
9 Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal, 26-Oct-2016, (online article about Hodgins Pharmacy)


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This page last updated on May 10, 2025.