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631 East Main Street

It may not look like it at first glance, but one of the oldest buildings in downtown Richmond is the one that now houses Phillips Drugs on the southwest corner of Main and Seventh Streets.

Around 1850, a young man named Charles P. Henry joined the throng headed to the gold fields of California.  He stayed seven or eight years and returned to Richmond a fairly wealthy man.   With some of that money he built a three-story business block on what was then called Main and Franklin Streets. The building was first occupied in the summer of 1860, and it was known as Henry’s Hall, or even earlier as Henry’s new brick building. Unfortunately, Mr. Henry died the following year at age 31 of “bilious cholic” or gallstones. Part of his obituary read, “The magnificent building on the corner of Main and Franklin streets will forever stand as a monument to his memory, alike worthy of his public spirit and private virtue.” (Broad Axe, June 20, 1861) It did not remain a monument to his memory, though, because before the decade was over, it acquired a new name.

Richmond Weekly Palladium October 11, 1860
Richmond Weekly Palladium October 11, 1860

Like most business blocks of the 19th century, the first floor housed retail, the second had professional offices, and the third floor was a meeting hall, which catered to small congregations, lodges or special events or meetings. In December 1860, pioneer Henry Hoover called the “Old Settlers of this County” to meet in the Henry Hall in one of the earliest meetings of that organization that continued to meet into the early 20th century.

Early 1860s view of Main St.
Early 1860s view of Main Street looking west

The first known photograph of the building was taken during the Civil War. At this point a tailor shop occupied the ground floor, with a billiard hall on the second, and still a public hall at the top.

Irvin Reed was one of Richmond’s early businessmen. He reportedly arrived in Richmond on his way west from his home in Ohio, but the old covered bridge across the Whitewater River was not complete, and the river was flooded. He was forced to spend a few days in Richmond, then decided to stay. He opened Richmond’s first pharmacy in 1833. In 1867, the Irvin Reed & Sons hardware store moved into the first floor of Henry Hall, and before long the building was being called the Irvin Reed Building.

Reed Building in the late 1870s

Irvin Reed & Sons remained in business at this location until 1933. Soon after, the ground floor was leased to the Kroger Grocery Company. In April 1935, much of the top floor was badly damaged by fire.

The post-fire renovations included keeping the first floor as a retail space, with Kroger returning, and offices and store rooms on the second. The third floor was so damaged that it was eliminated.

1948
1948

In 1949, Orla Phillips, a pharmacist from Anderson, Indiana, opened a new drug store in the building. After his death in 1956, Ray Zaleski, who already owned the Luken’s Drug Store at 626 Main, purchased Phillip’s store and kept its name unchanged.

1960 advertisement
1993 on the Promenade
2020