Seward Drugs on Auction Block

Cures for what ailed
earlier generations
to go to auction

Federal drug agents
confiscate controlled substances

By PAULA DOBBYN
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 13, 2005


An antique hunter has unearthed a treasure-trove of bizarre potions and tonics in the basement of the historic Seward Drug Co. building, offering an eye-opening glimpse into Alaska's pharmacological past.

The rare cache contains products from the World War II era and earlier, items like "Sanitube," a pomade for "male hygiene," and "Wo-Wo Tablets" for "when you are out of sorts and don't know what ails you." Dusty bottles of arsenic, ether, cocaine crystals, morphine and "asthma curing" cigarettes made of herbs were also among the relics.

Duane Hill, owner of Alaska Auction Co. of Anchorage, found the medicines and will auction them this weekend. He says he can't get over some of the stuff Alaska doctors prescribed in the earlier part of the last century, things like "refined" skunk oil and goose grease.

"I've been in the antique business since 1968 and I have never seen anything like this," Hill said Wednesday, standing over a display case of the antique medicines and folk remedies.

Hill figures he retrieved more than 200 bottles, boxes and other paraphernalia, including a hand-cranked suppository press.

For some reason, many of the potions were intended to ease constipation.

"There's a tremendous amount of bowel-movement stuff," Hill said, a smile splashed across his face. Hill and his wife, Christine, have wondered about it. Was it a lack of raw fruit and vegetables? Not enough coffee back in the old days? Who knows. "I guess you could say the people in Seward were full of ...Well, never mind."

The Hills plan to auction the stuff starting at 10 a.m. Saturday. Everything, that is, that hasn't already been seized by federal drug agents.

Drug Enforcement Agency investigator Candace Kopf confiscated some of the bottles, which likely contained narcotics and other controlled substances, Christine Hill said. After destroying the contents, the agency plans to return the old bottles because of their historic value, she said. Kopf declined to comment.

On Wednesday, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency examined the remedies, some of which are displayed at Alaska Auction Co.'s Web site.

"The arsenic powder is a big concern," EPA chemist Michael Byokin said to his colleague, Matthew Carr. The two conferred before a wall-mounted case filled with some of the more menacing-looking bottles, some of them labeled "poison."

"We saw the arsenic on the Web site. That stuff is super-toxic," Carr said.

It's not against the law necessarily to own it, but spilling arsenic or other toxins is a punishable offense, he said. EPA will likely offer "technical advice" to whoever buys the items at auction, Carr said.

A criminalist from the state crime lab, an investigator with the occupational licensing division and city officials have already visited the auction house to look over the old products, Christine Hill said.

One of her favorite items is a bottle that contained Nembutal tablets, a narcotic.

"This is what Marilyn Monroe died from," she said, pointing at the empty bottle.

Hill found the medicines after James Woern, who has owned Seward Drug since 1971, contacted him. After more than three decades being a town pharmacist and souvenir-shop owner, Woern decided to sell his turn-of-the-century building on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seward.

With the drugstore ready to be converted to a restaurant, Woern needed to clear out the boxes of old medicines he inherited when he bought the store. He knew they contained a lot of old drugs, but Woern said he never needed much basement space. So he kept everything in place until late last month when he called Hill. The collector of old things wasted no time driving to Seward.

"I love to go into basements and scrounge around for stuff. I jumped at the chance to go. Many of the medicines are from the 1940s but some appear to be much older," Hill said. "Seward Drug Co. dates back over 100 years."

According to "Seward, Alaska: A History of the Gateway City" by Mary J. Barry, the pharmacy's predecessor was Owl Drug Store, established in October 1904 by Dr. Frank M. Boyle of Valdez. The Owl Drug Co. was incorporated as the Seward Drug Co. in 1908.

Although Seward Drug has had different owners, it appears to have operated as a drugstore since its inception, Hill said. Woern says he has pictures of the Seward Drug store from the 1920s era.

The Hills have contacted some museums and collectors in hope that the drugs and other stuff will be preserved.

"I want these to go to good people. This is part of Alaska's history," Christine Hill said.

Any interested buyer is free to attend the auction at 1233 E. 76th Ave., or they can bid on the Internet, the Hills said. It's hard to say how much old drugs will fetch.

"I can price just about anything. But with this stuff, I haven't got a clue," Hill said.

Which leads us to a joke Misty offered today:

A lady walks into a drug store and tells the pharmacist she needs some cyanide.

The pharmacist said, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady then explained she needed it to poison her husband.

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he said, "Lord, have mercy -- I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's against the law! I'll lose my license, they'll throw both of us in jail and all kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not, I will not sell you any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well, now. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."