Before the rise of chain pharmacies, the Somerset Hills had many small drug stores. Somerset Pharmacy was founded in 1893 in Bernardsville, NJ, by George W. Burns (1865-1934). The store was located on Olcott Square in the spot occupied until recently by Mediterranean Tile. The original building burned in the 1960s. This image of the storefront was taken around 1905 and was part of a larger postcard.
The pharmacy’s customers came from a wide area. The bottle at the right was found on the Kennedy-Martin-Stelle farmstead (Farmstead Arts) on King George Road in Bernards Township. The bottom has the lettering “W T & Co, USA,” used by glassmaker Whitall Tatum & Company of Millville, NJ, until 1901. “Doc” Burns as he was known lost the business around 1920, reportedly because of a drug addiction, and thereafter worked for the Hemmendinger pharmacy in Bernardsville.
This article makes me so happy that the historical society was able to research this bottle that my Mother (Ingrid Geier) dug up while planting the herb garden at our home of 4o years now known as The Farmstead Arts center!