Camden Apothecary blends health and history with its sister pharmacy

The term one-stop-shop holds a different meaning at the Camden Apothecary and its sister store, the Bell Rexall Pharmacy, and this family-owned venue aims to bridge gaps in the world of health and history.

Bell Rexall Pharmacy has been around for almost a century, though when it first opened in 1931 it was called the Bell Drug Company. At the time, Bell was the first of its kind to dispense cannabis to those who needed it for medical purposes, until 1937 when the use of the plant was prohibited by the federal government.

Now, the pharmacy portion of the venue is back in business with marijuana, but this time, with a full-blown legal dispensary selling flower, edibles, tinctures and more.

“I think that what makes us different and separates us from every other pharmacy and every other dispensary is the history. And it’s a genuine history, not a history that’s been recreated or done in a fashion that sort of represents something,” says owner Anthony V. Minniti.

The preservation of history is quite apparent as soon as you walk through the door. From the signs, to the large windows looking out onto the street, to the glass-enclosed counter peppered with prescriptions in the back, the venue offers a peek into the past and a way to see what the business looked like when it was first opened by Henry Bellitz and his wife Anna so many years ago.

“This building and everything that you’re seeing in it is of the time. We have bottles and artifacts, they’re from the business and from the building that you’re in and all of it’s original,” explains Minniti. “All of what we’ve done is to create a time capsule of sorts where people can go back and they can experience what pharmacy used to be as a profession— the old drugstore style that they had when they were kids, and that they probably see in very old movies.”

After Bellitz passed away, his wife Anna ran the pharmacy for over another decade before one of their employee pharmacists, Max Schwartz, then took over. It was Schwartz who then sold the business to Minniti’s mother’s family, who already had plenty of experience in the pharmacy world as well.

Walking around the lobby of Bell Rexall, you can catch snippets of  it all yourself by just looking around.

During a restoration project years ago, Minniti discovered many old “fortunes” from its past inhabitants spanning signage bearing the logo of Rexall Drugs (which is disused in today’s world, but part of where the current pharmacy got its name), empty tincture bottles with everything from morphine to opium, original marble that used to be displayed in the front of the building, an old cigarette dispenser (they were 80 cents back then by the way), and other trinkets now on display for customers to see.

The walls of the pharmacy are also lined with Minniti’s family history and some unique prints showcasing the interesting world of medicine and pharmaceuticals through different cultures and perspectives—something that seems to be a theme for the business.

“[We] let people actually get up close and personal with it and really see it,” Minniti continues. “There are very few pharmacies independently that are even surviving these days. Much less ones that have survived for 93, 94 years and are still thriving.”

As Minniti stated, the venue has 90+ years in operation, making it the oldest independent pharmacy in the city and one of the oldest  in the country. But, the brand is also revolutionizing its path with the added feature of a dispensary in the same building. In fact, to get to the Camden Apothecary, customers walk through the lobby of the pharmacy.

This concept is a first for both the cannabis and pharmacy world, and it plays right into the history of the establishment being the first of its kind in the 1930s, incorporating medicinal use of marijunana.

“The idea that we can highlight the synergy between pharmacy and cannabis…that’s truly unique because there were no dispensaries that were into cannabis way back in the 30s, but this was, so, we think it’s an important piece of history for people to see. And everybody embraces it so warmly,” he explains.

“So many come in for the first time and they see all the stuff with their own eyes. People that are coming to the dispensary, they just stay out here for 15 or 20 minutes just looking around. And that’s exactly what we’ve always wanted and intended and hoped for it.”

The Apothecary portion of the building has two floors. The first houses the front desk, where many who place pick-up orders or who know what they want, can shop quickly. The upstairs, on the other hand, has more of a lounge atmosphere, and is there for those who want to take their time and experience the product through different senses before purchasing.

The latter comes to fruition with the “bud bar,” aka a spot where you can smell and see exactly what it is that you’re buying down to the exact strain. Both floors of the Apothecary have the added history facets sprinkled throughout different areas of the dispensary, just like at Bell Rexall.

The combo of both the dispensary and pharmacy isn’t an idea that is exactly embraced in either industry, and as Minitti puts it, he’s a bit of a pariah to them both. He has the idea it won’t always be that way though, and that one day, it can go hand in hand as its intended to be.

As for the plans and future of the building, that’s also set to grow. Minniti has his sights set for the building next door to the Apothecary, one that was owned by a former dentist and member of the NAACP, and he plans to keep a lot of the history of the place while turning it into an event space.

But for now, the work at both the Camden Apothecary and its sister store, the Bell Rexall Pharmacy, is here to serve people who need it, go the extra mile, and always embrace, enhance and preserve Camden and its community.

“A place like this, it has an impact and it matters to people and hopefully other pharmacies who are of the same time and age, whatever’s left, [I hope] they sort of copy this and understand how important it is to preserve that past,” finishes Minniti.

“This is meant to show family owners of a pharmacy… That’s what we’ve come from, that’s what we represent, and I’m hoping we’re serving as some sort of motivation for the younger generation of pharmacists to try to find their future by embracing what made pharmacy so great as a profession. We don’t just count pills. The fact that the reception from the community has been so strong and that we’re even having so many from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania coming over here who’ve heard about it and want to take that walk back in time… It’s great stuff.”

To find out more information on the Camden Apothecary and Bell Rexall Pharmacy (1205 Haddon Ave.), visit camdenapothecary.com and bellpharmacycamden.com