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THIS PHOTO FROM THE SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY looks north on 5th Avenue at Market Street in 1912. I have it in my head that Herbert Fitch took the shot, but I can't prove it. Do you remember Ferris & Ferris Drug Store -- and their claim to fame?
A pickle jar? All the old places used to have a pickle jar!! I'm trying to remember the name of the owners of the Drug Store on El Cajon Blvd around 30th street that we used to go to. They were friends of my parents and we'd go there sometime after dark. They would open up and fix me a great milk shake at the fountain. Now that's a great memory! I think their name was Ferris too but I'm not sure. The building was still there last time I went by...it has a distinctive entrance. The corner of the building was cut off for the entrance. I remember the trolleys and being sad when they took them out (I was extremely young at the time!) – Jeannine Berger Passenheim ’60
I remember going to Ferris and Ferris at about 11 p.m. one night in about 1968 to get a prescription for my sick wife. It seemed like there was a sign that said you could get your prescriptions filled at any time of the day or night. Is that their claim to fame? Tom Cassie ’62
Bike, Car, Street Car, Horse, Walking. There may be a horse-drawn carriage in front of Ferris & Ferris. Then there's the guy flying out the window of . . . Just kidding – Donn Dufford ‘63
That photo of fifth and Market reminded me of my childhood in that area. Our family ran a grocery market on the corner of fifth and Island so I spent a lot of time in and around that area. It is now the site of the Blarney Stone Pub. The one thing I do remember about Ferris and Ferris was that it had a real pharmacy and a large comic book selection. I cannot remember if it had a soda fountain or not. Directly across the street from the drug store was Bank of America where our store did its banking. Up the street on Market and Sixth was Krasne's Sports Store/Gunshop and Surplus. Across from that was McDini's Irish Bar. At the time -- from 1955 to 1970 -- the street between Island and Market was a pretty rough part of town with lots of bars, the associated patrons and a few Chinese restaurants scattered about such as the Frisco Cafe, Nanking Cafe and the Sun Café, which was the oldest continuously-operated restaurant in San Diego. Our store was called the Chinese-American Market and we did business with nearly all of the Chinese restaurants in San Diego area and a lot of the family-owned Chinese laundries. We closed the store in 1977. Shortly thereafter, of course, the Gaslamp District was developed. Our ancestral family home was located at third and Island. The building was occupied by my great grandfather, Ah Quin from about 1882 to his death in 1914 and by the extended family until 1964 when it was demolished. I lived there from my birth in 1947 to when our family moved to the Oak Park area in 1952. The Horton Grand Hotel occupies most of the block presently, however the hotel honored my great grandfather for many years by having pictures and artifacts on exhibit in their museum area, and a suite named after him. In short, growing up and experiencing 'downtown San Diego' as it was in the fifties was a most stimulating experience. Oh yeah, I remember the old trolley tracks in the street as shown in the photo, until the street was repaved sometime in the early fifties -- Dave Ming ‘66
(I swear Neil Morgan and Frank Rhoades, columnists for the Evening Tribune and San Diego Union, occasionally mentioned Ferris & Ferris having a jar of leeches on the counter. I tried to check this fact on-line. I didn't find it, but learned that Gregory Peck's father worked there and the Julian Stage stopped there -- JF)
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