T. P. Taylor and Co. Records, 1900-1990
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: T. P. Taylor and Co.
Title: Records, 1900-1990
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 1 cubic foot, 1 vol., 1 ovsz. folder
Location Number: Mss. BB T246
Scope and Content Note
The T.P. Taylor and Co., (Taylor Drug) Records document the history of this drug store chain in Louisville, Kentucky and in southern Indiana through newspaper clippings, publications, scrapbooks, ephemera, and a minor amount of business correspondence and documents. Ephemeral materials include promotional circulars and menus from the soda fountains located within the drugstores; family materials include trust and inheritance documents concerning the company and its inheritors, a draft registration card from World War I, ration cards from World War II, as well as an honorary diploma from the University of Louisville in 1948. Newspaper clippings within the collection document the openings of various stores throughout the Louisville area and Kentucky, events and activities concerning the presidents of Taylor Drug, and generally document the progression of the Taylor Drug Store chain, notably through the company newsletter, Taylor Talk.
Separation Note:
Photographs donated with the collection were transferred to The Filson Photograph Collection, and are available as the Taylor Drug Company Collection, 008PC18.2.
Historical Note
The Taylor Drug chain was founded in 1879 by Thomas Pickett Taylor (T. P. Taylor) of Louisville, Kentucky. Taylor purchased the store of A. Delime in the Portland section of Louisville and opened two additional stores downtown shortly thereafter. By 1903, the Taylor Drug chain had joined with a leading group of druggists to form the United Drug Company, or “Rexall.” Both of Taylor’s sons, Thomas Pickett Taylor, Jr. and Horace Taylor, became registered pharmacists and were working with their father by 1926. Stock at the early Taylor Drug stores consisted mostly of prescription drugs and patent medicine as well as cigars, liquor, and cosmetics. All of the Taylor Drug Stores contained soda fountains.
After T. P. Taylor’s death in 1928, his sons inherited the business and sold the drug stores to the Whalen Drug Company of New York. During the Great Depression, Whalen went in to receivership and the Taylors regained four of the stores in lieu of back rent, as they still owned some of the buildings. In 1933, Horace entered politics and T. P. Taylor, Jr. became president of the company. His son Phillip joined the company in 1934, but was killed in action in World War II. In order to keep the chain within the family, T. P. Taylor, Jr. hired his son-in-law, William H. Harrison.
By 1953, when T. P. Taylor, Jr. died, the chain had grown to fifteen stores. Harrison became president and served in that capacity for twenty-five years. Under his leadership the chain grew from fifteen to forty-four stores in eight Kentucky cities and six Indiana communities. Harrison’s son, William H. Harrison, Jr., became a pharmacist and senior Vice President and Director of Real Estate. In 1978, William H. Harrison, Sr. became chairman of the board and chief executive officer and the presidency went to Donald Patterson, the first company president not related to the Taylor family. In 1988, Taylor Drugs purchased the Otto Drug chain, overtaking the Walgreen Company as the largest drug-store chain in the Louisville area.
For many years Taylor Drug was known as the “home folks” drug store. The stores were among the first to offer discount prices to senior citizens, to use child-proof medicine bottle caps, and to offer “patient profile” records of all prescriptions ordered. Until the 1960s, all of the drug stores had soda fountains. In the 1970s, the soda fountains were removed and not built into new stores as the company followed the trend of self-service. The stock at the stores diversified over time to include prescription eyeglasses, picnic supplies, groceries, cosmetics and makeup, and a broader selection of what had previously been offered.
In the 1980s, with the emergence of managed health care and third-party control over pharmaceutical prices, profits on prescription medicine decreased and locally based chains such as Taylor Drugs could no longer compete as they had in the past. By 1996 the chain had shrunk to thirty-four stores and was sold to Rite-Aid.
Folder List
Box 1:
Folder 1: Business Documents, 1914-1983
Folder 2: Business Ephemera, 1953, 1979, undated. [menus, programs, publications, advertisements Thomas P. Taylor, Jr. Death Tribute Book, prescription bag]
Folder 3: Taylor-Harrison Trust and Inheritance Documents and Correspondence, 1964-1969
Folder 4 Taylor-Harrison Family Ephemera, 1918-1969 [T. P. Taylor’s University of Louisville diploma from 1948, ration cards, 1942; 1918 draft registration, family-related newsclippings]
Folder 5: Business and Pharmaceutical Circulars and Publications, 1908-1982
Folder 6: Newspaper Clippings, 1905-1918
Folder 7: Newspaper Clippings, 1922, 1928-1929
Folder 8: Newspaper Clippings, 1932-1936
Folder 9: Newspaper Clippings, 1948 [death of W. B. Harrison, former Louisville mayor]
Folder 10: Newspaper Clippings, 1950-1956
Folder 11: Newspaper Clippings, 1963, 1969
Folder 12: Newspaper Clippings, 1977, 1979
Folder 13: Newspaper Clippings, 1980, 1983, 1987-1988
Folder 14: Newspaper Clippings, 1990
Folder 15: Newspaper Clippings, undated
Folder 16-17: Newspaper Clippings from Scrapbook, 1900-1980s
Folder 18: Scrapbook on history of Taylor Drugs, 1976 (focuses on 1976; removed from binder)
Folder 19: Miscellaneous, 1902-1988 [pharmacy publications, Photostats of Courier-Journal
(Oversized) pages, large hand-drawn card from staff, architectural plan for display/storefront dated 1937; ad for different locations of Taylor Drug Stores.]
Volume 20: Taylor Talk Scrapbook, circa 1950s-1960s [compiled by an employee and his family, donated to company in 1984, includes employee newspaper (Taylor Talk) and corporate correspondence, newsclippings, photographs.]
