The South Perry business district took shape when the McEachran family built a commercial building at 10th Ave. and Perry St. in the East Central area in 1910. The building served as a grocery store for many years and was a drug store from the 1960s onward until Altamont Pharmacy closed in 2009. Does anyone remember this building and the businesses that were there before the modern era? The photo above is from the 1940s, when Freeman and Bertha Bolkan ran a cafe there, next to a grocery store.

Here's an excerpt from a Spokesman-Review story about the closing of the Altamont Pharmacy in 2009:

       A Spokane landmark will close next month after nearly a century in business. The Altamont Pharmacy will merge its prescription drug operations with Safeway on the South Hill after 99 years at the corner of East 10th Avenue and South Perry Street.

Owner Art Tyrrell, 68, said he’d been thinking of slowing down for a while. He wasn’t searching for an opportunity, but one came along, he said.

"I can’t do this forever," said Tyrrell, "even though it’s a lot of fun – most of the time."     

 

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