A 1916 view of Market and Seventh Streets. The Live and Let Live Drug Co. is on the left. Click to enlarge.
When I was growing up, we always had a couple of the “Chattanooga Yesterday and Today” pictorials from Hiener Printing Company on the coffee table. In Volume IV of the series, there is a 1916 view of Market and Seventh Streets that is my favorite of all old Chattanooga photographs. Captured in the scene are various Chattanoogans going about their daily activities. There are businessmen crossing the intersection who are obviously in a hurry to meet an appointment. Mothers and their children are out for a day of shopping. Streetcars and automobiles compete for the same pavement; only one of them would ultimately survive the test of time. On the left side of the photograph is the Central Block which dates to 1883. The first floor of this multi-use structure was the home of the interestingly-named Live and Let Live Drug Company.
According to the “Acts of Tennessee 1895,” the Live and Let Live Drug Company was chartered on May 12, 1893. Its founder was Mark L. Morrison, who lived at 401 Pine Street, just a few blocks from his work. As a teenager, Mr. Morrison had been employed with his brother, Robert Morrison, in the Eastman and Thacher drug store. Robert Morrison went on to successful ventures in the Soddy Coal Company and Morrison and Woodward Lumber. Mark Morrison changed jobs several times, including stints with a railroad, newspaper, steel business, and public works, before returning to Chattanooga to open his own drug store.
In 1894, the Central Block building was occupied by a variety of businesses. Among the Live and Let Live’s neighbors were Charles C. McCartey (a veterinarian and dentist), the City Savings Bank, the Industrial Weekly Benefit Association, and various doctors, dentists, and lawyers. One dentist’s sign read “set of teeth - $5.00.” The third floor was occupied by the Moccasin Club, which I presume was a fraternal organization whose members included some of the business professionals in the same building.
As the year 1896 began, The Live and Let Live Drug Company was able to report that it had filled 24,595 new prescriptions, and 16,000 refills since its business started. The store billed itself as the “Original Cut Price Druggists,” and frequently reminded the public of the threat to competition and low prices that the “monopolistic” drug store chains presented.
Live and Let Live was a frequent advertiser in the local newspapers, with appeals to those with these health conditions:
* Suffering from a cough? Try Red X Cough Drops for 3 cents a package. Still suffering from a cough? Try Gooch Mexican Cough Syrup for 35 cents.
* Tired and feeling run down? You need Elixir of Youth, said to cure “evil dreams, headaches, and pains in the limbs caused by youthful errors or excesses.” Another tonic was sold with a written guarantee “to cure lost vitality, nervous debility, insomnia, failing memory, and all wasting diseases. “
* Digestive problems? An advertisement on January 2, 1900 offered customers “A New Year’s Gift! An unparalleled offer – to all who suffer from indigestion, we offer you a new stomach for the new year. We sell the Chehe Dyspepsia Cure, and will refund money if it fails to do the work.” If it didn’t do the work, one could still try Bromo-Seltzer for 15 cents.
Indeed, based on advertisements of Live and Let Live and its competitors, one gets the impression that there were many customers seeking panaceas for the health problems of the day. Breathing difficulties were common, brought on by factory smoke, tobacco smoke, and fumes from coal and wood furnaces. A common condition was catarrh, an inflammation of the sinuses and mucous membranes. Live and Let Live and others sold products which purportedly offered relief. With numerous distilleries in Chattanooga, drinking to excess was common. Healthcare advertisements offered cures for habits of whiskey, as well as tobacco and opium.
Like drug stores of today, the Live and Let Live Drug Company sold more than just medicine. As the photo of the building shows, Live and Let Live sold Kodak cameras and film. They also had the once ubiquitous feature of American drug stores: a soda fountain that seated seventy-five persons. Can’t we just look at that old photo of the drug store, and imagine that the mothers have promised their children an ice cream soda if they will just be good while mom does her shopping?
Live and Let Live’s founder, Mark L. Morrison, died in 1916. His son, Mark C. Morrison, went on to establish three drugstores in the downtown area. George K. Brown, who owned the lavishly-furnished Palace ice cream parlor on the southeast corner of Seventh and Market, bought a controlling interest in the Live and Let Live Drug Store in 1913. On Sept. 8, 1919, Mr. Brown sold the store to the Louis K. Liggett Company of Net York. Liggett’s was one of the drugstore chains that Mr. Morrison had often railed against in his advertisements. Liggett’s controlled the Rexall medicine firm, whose products had been sold in the Live and Let Live store. Live and Let Live’s charter was formally surrendered on November 12, 1920.
Liggett’s remained in business at Seventh and Market until December 24, 1962. The vacated Central Block building went through several tenants, and suffered through a remodeling that included green paint. In the 1990’s, the former home of Live and Let Live appeared to be on the verge of being felled by the wrecking ball. Fortunately, historic preservation won in this case. The Central Block was beautifully restored, and today houses the offices of the United Way of Chattanooga.
If you have any information on the Live and Let Live Drug Company or the businesses once located in the Central Block, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@signaldata.net.
On Sept. 8, 1919, the store was sold to the Louis K. Liggett Company. Click to enlarge.