Our Town

You don't need a T-Bird or an "I Like Ike" button to enjoy that classic American institution of the fifties: the drugstore soda fountain. According to local fountain proprietor Phylis E. Madanian, you can find one of only three operating Massachusetts soda fountains around the corner from the Square on Brattle Street.

The once-common neighborhood stores are today a rarity--most vintage drugstores seem to have gone out of business or ceased operating soda fountains after their heyday as teen hangouts in the jukebox era.

Complete with marble-topped counter and an antique soda-fountain glass, display Billings and Stover Apothecaries, Inc. has all the trappings of the drugstores that many of our parents--and grandparents--may have known.

The drugstore's inedible merchandise complements the cultural nostalgia produced by the soda fountain's presence. There are postcards featuring such Fifties idols as James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley. Antique shaving brushes and genuine victorian bath products line the walls and combine with the retro decor to evoke an even earlier age.

Billings and Stover also carry a selection of popular modern pharmaceutical items and fill prescriptions. Over three million have been filled to date, according to the store's antiqued bags.

The old-style product selection comes as no accident, according to Madanian. "That's one of the advantages of being a small independent store," Madanian says. "I can handpick everything, so we get a lot of old-fashioned things."

In Madanian's estimation, the store's single best-selling item is the Mason and Pearson hairbrush. It's more expensive than the average CVS plastic model, but "it lasts for twenty years," Madanian says, indicating the finely-crafted brush in a box on the pharmacy counter. "Definitely a quality item," she adds.

Things were not always so old-fashioned at Billings and Stover.

Although the store has been in operation since 1854, it lost much of its original decorative finery over the years. Although soda fountains typically evoke the fifties, Billings and Stover actually abandoned their original design in 1947, concentrating revenue reinvestment efforts on the store's pharmaceutical business.

In recent years, however, increased competition from national chains such as CVS left Billings and Stover struggling to survive. By the middle of 1994, Madanian says she was ready to try anything to stay in business. So she recreated (as best she could) the store's original soda fountain.

"We wanted to make a major change that would give the store new life," Madanian says

Apparently, Madanian picked a choice gimmick. Business picked up soon after the renovation and the store has since endeared itself to a score of regular customers.

Madanian points to a large photo hanging from the wall. In the framed picture appears an elderly man, garbed in an apron and standing behind the original soda fountain.

"We tried to re-create the original look," says Madanian. Indeed, the current black marble counter matches the one in the picture, although a bit smaller.

Soda fountain fare features as many hits of yester-year as the pharmacy counter. Along with traditional ice cream and old-fashioned fudge made on the premises, the fountain offers such staples as the ice-cream soda and house special "Larry's New York Egg Cream." Apparently, the drink was named after a certain Larry who banged on the window the night before the new old-style fountain opened and taught the staff how to make a real New York egg cream.

Nostalgia is big these days, and given the climate of revival, it should come as no surprise that an old-fashioned drug store in Harvard Square is doing brisk business catering to our collective yearning for authentic Americana. However, the attention that Billings and Stover has garnered, along with its regular customers, has made it more than a retro fad.

"We have people who come in to say `Thank you for hanging in there,'" says Madanian. "That makes it worthwhile for me."