Updated 12/4/24 – Sansone & Osif
What are the stories of the Hopewell Pharmacy and the two other buildings at the corner of West Broad and South Greenwood in Hopewell?
We have some facts and photos of the businesses and people that were there back to the 1890s – but are seeking more information and images to fill the gaps and flesh out their stories.
The three buildings are the Hopewell Pharmacy at the corner (1 West Broad), the adjacent one-story market building with the step-up false front above the roofline (7 West Broad), and another connected smaller storage building (9 West Broad).
Thanks to local photographers Ken Kaplowitz and Gary Saretzky for many of the images used here (click for earlier posts on their work).
1 West Broad Building – Pharmacy
The building on the corner of South Greenwood, now 1 West Broad, was built as the Holcombe Block after a major fire in 1893 destroyed the structures at the intersection.
The building has been used to house multiple businesses for most of its existence, with separate businesses in the left and right halves facing Broad, and another small business in the back left corner on Greenwood. The middle door on the front leads to stairs to the second floor.
1 West Broad – Left Half – Drug Stores
The left side of the corner building, 1 West Broad, has housed drug stores for its entire existence, It was a Rexall Drug Store for much of this period, and became the Hopewell Pharmacy in the 1950s. The two halves of the building were combined after the Pharmacy expanded into compounding in 1994.
The known owners and business are:
- by 1894 – George E. Pierson – became Pierson’s Rexall Drug Store
- 1920 – Paul S. Cutter – Cutter’s Rexall Drug Store
- 1956 – Richard H. Edling – rename Hopewell Pharmacy
- c1966 – Leonard Caputi and George L. Neely, Jr. – Hopewell Pharmacy
- early 1970s – Back corner combined into Pharmacy – Gift store
- 1987 – James Palmieri and Gene Ragazzo – Hopewell Pharmacy
- 1994 – Expanded in compounding – Hopewell Pharmacy and Compounding Center
- 1994+ – Right side combined into Pharmacy – Cards & gifts
- 2014 – James Palmieri
- 2018 – JoAnn Hobson, Eric Jaderlund – Hopewell Pharmacy and Compounding Center
1 West Broad – Right Half – Retail (3 West Broad)
The right half of the drug store building was used for a variety of retail businesses, sometimes with the address of 3 West Broad, until it was combined into the Pharmacy after 1994.
The information on this part of the building is a bit sketchier:
- 1894 – 1925 — Williamson Store – C. L. Williamson – dry goods, clothing
- 1932 – Barber shop?
- 1939 – 1942 – “The Spot” – Restaurant & ice cream – George J. Myers, Jr
- 1943 – Miller’s 5 & 10 cent Store
- by 1952 – R. C. Laycock 5 & 10 cent Store
- 1970s – Hopewell Variety five & dime – Miriam Fritz
- ? – Sisco’s 5 & 10 cent Store
- 1994+ – Right side combined into Pharmacy – Cards & gifts
1 West Broad – Rear – Paint Stores (4 South Greenwood)
The left rear corner of the Pharmacy building originally was used as a separate space, with the address of 4 South Greenwood. The filled-in doorway and windows from Greenwood are still visible at the corner of the building.
- by 1902 – 1915 – Hopewell Post Office
- ? – Joseph Barno, Shoemaker
- 1940 – James di Iorio – Tailor (to 35 W Broad)
- 1947 – Hopewell Wall Paper & Paint Co. (from 35 W Broad)
- ? – Vaccaro
- 1950 – c. 1957 – Hopewell Quality Shoppe – Walter Benson
- c. 1957 – 1970s – Robert Saums
- by 1975 – Not in use – Robert Saums at 75 Princeton Ave. – Saums Interiors
- Back corner combined into Pharmacy – Gifts
7 West Broad Building – Groceries & Markets
The second one-story building next to the Pharmacy, with the step-up false front covering the roof line, is 7 West Broad Street. It was built in 1915 for the Lehman store, with only a small gap separating it from the corner building.
This building was used for various grocery stores and markets:
- 1915 – Lehman’s Economy Store – L. Lehman Company – groceries and meats
- by 1918 – Lehman’s Economy Store – Irwin McDowell & Edgar R. Pierson
- by 1933 – 1950s – American Stores – supermarket (from 47 W Broad in 1920s)
- by 1959 – 1967 – Hopewell Village Market – Neil Sansone & George Osif
- 1967 – c1999 – Hopewell Village Market – Angelo Pagano & Joseph Doreo
- 2000 – 2018 – Brothers Moon Restaurant – Will Mooney & Beth Ann Judge
- 2018 – Planned partnering with Hopewell Theater renovation
The building was purchased from the Brothers Moon in 2018 with the expectation of partnering with the Hopewell Theater renovation, but further work was halted by COVID.
9 West Broad Building – Plumbing and Annex
The third smaller building on the right, 9 West Broad, is attached to #7. It was built by 1927, shown as a store in the 1927 Sanborn map and a plumbing business in the 1935 map. (The 1927 map also shows an even smaller fourth #11 store building to the right of #9, which was gone by 1935.)
The building was used for storage and as an annex to #7:
- by 1935 – at least 1954 – G. Newell Holcombe Plumbing – storage
- later 1900s – Expansion for Hopewell Village Market
- 2000s – Additional dining room for Brothers Moon Restaurant
G. Newell Holcombe used the building for his plumbing business, which operated from at least the mid-1920s through the mid 1950s. The Holcombe family lived at 19 West Broad, and he apparently used this building primarily for storage.
Later, the space was used as an extension to the Village Market, and then incorporated into the Brothers Moon restaurant as an additional dining room.
- Browse images of 1 West Broad in the Image Gallery
- Browse images of 7 & 9 West Broad in the Image Gallery
Please contact us if you have more information, photos, or other materials on these businesses and people as part of our local history
