A LOOK BACK AT PARK AVENUE
1940-1974
There was a time when you could enjoy a quick hamburger, grilled cheese sandwich, milkshake, or vanilla coke at any lunch counter in America. Many of them were in drug stores. The food was moderately priced, and tasty. The welcome was warm. In Winter Park, O'Brien's Pharmacy was that place.
With the assistance of his mother and $250, Neill O'Brien bought the old Colonial Pharmacy across the street from the Colony Theater in 1940. Two years later he married Evelyn, and together they transformed the space into a Winter Park institution. Neill was the Pharmacist, and for 25 years cook Betty Williams worked the grill and fountain.
For 34 years O' Brien's was a favorite Winter Park hangout for students, and a business center for their parents, either over coffee in the morning or lunch in the afternoon.
Department of College Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
Fiesta Float of 1953 with O'Brien's Pharmacy in the background. Today Siegel's Men store occupies part of the space of the old pharmacy.
Rollins students also frequented O'Brien's. Note the winners of the "Beanie Contest" in the October 26, 1962 Rollins Sandspur.
Are there former Rollins students who can tell us about the contest? Also, if any reader has photos of the pharmacy, please share with the Winter Park History Museum at museum@wphistory.org.
Advertisement, Sandspur Newspaper, 1962.
Note the services available to Rollins students include their own charge accounts. At the end of each month, their drug, cosmetics, and lunch counter bills are totaled and sent to their parents.
Written by Linda Kulmann
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