May & Gorham Drug Store

In the days when downtowns thrived, almost every town had a drugstore with walnut paneling and a marble-top soda fountain where thick milkshakes and orangeades were made. The May & Gorham Drug Store was constructed as a two-story brick commercial building in 1904, and later enlarged in 1906. The building was built by D. J. Rose for Reading D. Bullock and John D. Bullock. Today, D. J. Rose & Son, Inc. is the oldest continuously operating general contracting firm in North Carolina. Richard S. Gorham founded the May & Gorham Drug Store with W. A. May in 1904.

Architects, doctors, dentists, and other professionals rented second-floor office space in the Bullock Building. The first-floor drug store was originally known as the Five Points Drug Store due to its location at Tarboro, Washington, and Rose Streets. It is one of the best examples of a turn-of-the-century drugstore in eastern North Carolina. For nearly a century, May & Gorham was one of the primary drug stores in Rocky Mount.

Richard (Dick) S. Gorham was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina on February 18, 1883. He was one of six children born to Frank and Etta Jenkins Gorham. He received his early education in Edgecombe schools and later attended the University of North Carolina. After passing the necessary examinations, Gorham was licensed as a pharmacist in 1903 and returned to Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

On August 18, 1936, R. S. Gorham married 33-year-old Grace Mae Wardlaw in Richmond, Virginia. At various times, he served as a bank director, building and loan official, and other responsible positions in other local businesses. In his spare time, Gorham was a Mason, a Shriner, a member of the Rocky Mount Kiwanis Club, and a member of the First Methodist Church. Richard Gorham operated May & Gorham for more than 40 years before his death at the age of 70. He died on July 27, 1953, and is buried in Pineview Cemetery in Rocky Mount.

In 1910, Mickey P. Dawson, a native of Tarboro, came to Rocky Mount to work as a druggist in May & Gorham Drug Store. He graduated from Page Pharmaceutical School as a licensed druggist when he was 18 years old. Later, he and his brother, Benjamin Dawson, went into partnership in the Standard Drug Company, which also became a Rocky Mount landmark at the corner of Main Street and Sunset Avenue. In 1940, Dawson went into the insurance and real estate business. He was one of the first recognized property appraisers in Rocky Mount and was on the original City Planning and Zoning Board. Mickey Dawson spent 70 years as a druggist in Rocky Mount before his death at the age of 88 in 1979.

After Richard Gorham’s death, Mr. & Mrs. E. Sanford Dalton, along with a pharmacist and a doctor, purchased the May & Gorham Drug Store in 1954. They dropped the “drug store” name and became known as the May & Gorham Pharmacy. In October 1975, the pharmacy was recognized for filling its one-millionth prescription. The May & Gorham Drug Store was listed by the NRHP as a contributing structure as part of the Rocky Mount Central City Historic District in 1980.

By 1981, Mrs. Gladys Dalton was the only surviving owner and worked daily in the store. She still rang up each purchase on the old cash register and dispensed old-fashioned castor oil from a gallon can behind the pharmacy counter. For 90 cents, she would mix a dose of castor oil with root beer. She believed the old-fashioned touches kept the customers coming back. Mrs. Gladys Dalton died in 2006.

The May & Gorham Pharmacy building sold in December 1986 to a group of local investors. In 1988, the building was restored to its turn-of-the-century appearance at a cost of $250,000. The project was spearheaded by 26-year-old entrepreneur Frank “Kip” Meadows III, an investment management consultant and founder of The Nottingham Company of Rocky Mount. He moved his company headquarters to the second floor of the building and remained there until 2001.

In February 1989, May & Gorham Pharmacy announced they were merging pharmacies with Almand’s Drug Stores and would no longer fill prescriptions. A year later, in 1990, the former drug store was transformed into The Five Points Restaurant and Soda Shop by new owner, Marilyn McLaughlin. Once the restaurant closed, the former drug store remained vacant. Meadows donated the use of the upstairs office space to the Boys and Girls Club.

In 2015, Meadows donated the May & Gorham Building to Downtown Renaissance, a nonprofit formed in 1985 dedicated to promoting and assisting the revitalization of downtown Rocky Mount. Once Downtown Renaissance acquires a building, covenants are put into place and the building is stabilized until an investor comes in and makes a purchase. The covenants for the May & Gorham Building included preserving the former drugstore part of the structure.

In 2018, local developer Jesse Gerstl and his partners acquired the May & Gorham Building from Downtown Renaissance. He hopes to restore the downstairs drugstore as a cafe or cocktail bar and renovate the upstairs into apartments. Gerstl and his team have redeveloped several other properties in the downtown area.

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