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 HUGH MERCER'S APOTHECARY SHOP - Fredericksburg, VA Posted by:  vhasler
N 38° 18.273 W 077° 27.617
18S E 284874 N 4242470
The Civil War vintage drug store is still being maintained for exhibition.
Waymark Code: WM9YBZ
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 10/16/2010
Views: 5
HUGH MERCER'S APOTHECARY SHOP (open 9-6 weekdays; adm. 25$, SW. corner Amelia and Caroline Sts., is assumed to have been in this small story-and-a-half clapboarded structure. The southern portion of the building, older than the shop, was built in the mid-eighteenth century. Washington kept a desk here for transacting business when in Fredericksburg.
Dr.Hugh Mercer, a Scottish Jacobite, met disaster at Culloden as an army surgeon with Bonnie Prince Charlie, emigrated to America, fought in the French and Indian War, became a close friend of Washington, and on his advice settled in Fredericksburg. Here he practiced medicine and conducted his apothecary shop. He entered the Revolution as a colonel of militia but was a brigadier general when he was killed at the Battle of Princeton.
During restoration, the removal of lath and plaster revealed the shelves, drawers, and pigeonholes of an old shop, some of the drawer fronts bearing labels apparently in Dr. Mercer's handwriting. The interior is completely furnished with a large collection of apothecary bottles and implements, some found on the place, others belonging to Mercer's descendants. A little garden is maintained as it used to be, with lavender, thyme, and other herbs.
---- Virginia - A Guide to the Old Dominion State, 1940.
Stop 4 on the Fredericksburg historical driving tour located at 1020 Caroline Street. Open Mar-Oct 9AM-4PM, 12-4PM Sunday and Nov-Feb 10AM-3PM, 12-4PM Sunday. $5 adults, $2 students. (Note: The $0.25 admission in 1940 would now be $3.83 using the Consumer Price Index.)
Book: Virginia
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 221-222
Year Originally Published: 1940
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