Gray Drug

GRAY DRUG

Gray Drug was located on the SW corner and this is the side that faced Columbus St. The longest part of the building ran along Market St.

Gray Drug was a drugstore chain in Cleveland Ohio. The chain began in 1912 and grew to 46 stores by 1946 and over 100 by the 1970s. Gray Drug was sold to Rite Aid in 1987. As a result, the downtown store was moved to the former Woolworth building on the opposite side of Columbus Avenue. The Gray Drug Store not only featured retail space and a pharmacy but also a cafeteria.

In this photo you can see the length of the building along W. Market St.

From left to right: Gray Drug Store, The City Building (this former fire station became Sandusky’s first official City Hall), and The Peoples Savings Assoc.

Once Gray Drug moved, the city was faced with an entire block of empty retail storefronts. The Sandusky City Commission voted in December 1990 to demolish all three buildings. This demolition was completed during 1991 and created a large vacant area along Columbus Avenue which was filled with the Erie County Parking Garage, a joint Sandusky-Erie County project that opened to the public in 1996.

This photo was taken during the Armed Forces Day parade that was held on May 16, 1959. 

Here is another picture of the Gray Drugs building from Columbus Ave. looking south. The site is now the municipal parking garage.