J.R. Grymes


Company Names, addresses, dates:
  J.R. Grymes, Orange VA (1904-1944) 1
  Grymes Drug Store, 125 E Main Street, Orange VA (c.1930s-c.1970s) 2
  Grymes Drug Store, 128 W Main Street, Orange VA (c.1970s-c.2010) 2,4

Notes:
John Randolph Grymes (1868-1944)3 ran a drug business in Orange for 40 years. He started his career in the drug store business working for H.W. Cole in Danville for 17 years. He then moved to Orange, and started a drugstore business on September 1, 1904, when he bought out the store of Dr. McMurry.1

He sold the store in 1944 to Stanley H. Jewell & Jack Maddex1 shortly before he passed away. Apparently they stayed with the Grymes name for the drug store.

I don't know where the store was originally located. There was a large fire in Orange in 1908, so the original location may have been one of the buildings that burned down. The store was at 125 E Main Street from the 1930s to the 1970s, then at 128 W Main Street after that4. The latest reference I could find for the Grymes drug store was 2008, where it was listed in a Pharmacy directory at 128 W Main Street - I don't know how much longer after that it remained.

Bottles:

grymes_01 Amber 7.4" flask with no embossing. It has a label that says:
label: PURE COD LIVER OIL / ... / J.R. Grymes / Pharmacist / Orange Virginia
grymes_02 Amber 3.2" flask with no embossing. It has a label that says:
label: SYRUP OF IPECAC / ... / J.R. GRYMES / PHARMACIST / ORANGE, VIRGINIA
Clearly this looks like somebody took a dug bottle and stuck a label on it. But the dealer who sold it to me said it came out of an old man's attick with the label attached. Sounds fishy, but I beleive the labels are authentic on this bottle, & the one above.
grymes_04 This is a clear, 5.1" un-embossed machine-made bottle with a label:
label: GLYCERIN / J.R. GRYMES / PHARMACIST / ORANGE, VIRGINIA



Other Items:
grymes_03 This photo of 128 W Main Street was taken Nov 2010. The building used to be the Grymes drug store4.
grymes_05 This photo of 125 E Main Street was taken May 2009. The Walking Tour brochure for Orange says that this building was home to the Grymes drug store in the 1930s through the 1970s2.
grymes_06 This is a baby thermometer from the Grymes drug store. It's in the original box, which has markings from the Becton-Dickinson (B-D) company in NJ. The plastic thermometer is marked:
blue text: GRYME'S DRUG STORE / Orange, Virginia Tel. 2141 / "For The Baby"


1 Richmond Times Dispatch, Feb 13, 1944, page 22
2 Brochure: "A Walking Tour of the Downtown Orange Commercial Historic District", published by the Orange Downtown Alliance
3 Find-a-grave for John Randolph Grymes
4 www.grymesdrug.com web site had photo of this building w/ sign that said "Grymes Drug Store" [web site no longer available]


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This page last updated on May 18, 2020.