WARREN – For a century and a half, untold numbers of Warrenites have been coming to the building at the corner of Main and Joyce Streets for prescriptions, odds and ends and — most famously these days, coffee cabinets.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the building, which Delekta's Pharmacy workers believe has housed a pharmacy since the day it opened. Though Eric Delekta said his family's pharmacy hasn't been in the store the whole time, it's always served a similar purpose, as far as he knows.
These days, the pharmacy is a family affair, much as it's been throughout the building's life.
Kathy (Delekta) Lowney has been a pharmacist at the shop since 1953. She handed prescriptions over the counter to some customers decades ago whose children and grandchildren now fill their prescriptions at the same place.
"I know all the generations, I've been here for so long; great-grandparents, grandparents," she said.
Filling prescriptions at the pharmacy is still the primary business, although many local people stop by to enjoy milkshake, soda and cabinets, which are still made the old-fashioned way.,
"We have a very good cabinet business, that's our big seller," said Joan Krawczyk, who has made a few cabinets over her 42 years at the store.
Delekta Pharmacy makes its own coffee and vanilla syrup to make their famous cabinets. The coffee cabinets have been made with the same recipe for decades, but no one' revealing exactly what's in the coffee syrup they make in quantity each day.
"The coffee syrup recipe is from when my grandfather worked here. I started making it when I took over from him. I'm sure there's been a fountain here since forever," Mr. Delekta said.
Mr. Delekta manages the pharmacy, and he and his two brothers, Nick and Simon, have owned the shop since 1988. Originally, the pharmacy was owned by Mr. McCaw, who sold it to William Bennett, and then Howard DeWolf, until the Ignatius Delekta took it over in 1950.
Prescription for change
The Delekta family has made few physical changes to the building, keeping the stamped tin ceiling and, of course, the soda fountain. On one wall, shelves hold rows of old glass bottles with glass stoppers that once held pharmaceuticals.
"That's how medicine used to come in, everything used to be in powders or liquids that they would mix," Mr. Delekta said.
Over the years, some change has been inevitable. Ms. Lowney said she still loves coming to work each day, but there are challenges.
"When I first started here, it was like magic. Now it's more paperwork than anything. It's smothered with regulations."
Local spot
Regulars help keep Delekta Pharmacy going strong. Debbie O'Brien remembers stopping by the pharmacy as a child, and she still stops by about five days a week to chat with members of the Delekta family, or to pick up a prescription or a drink.
"My father used to take me here when I was three or four, for a coffee cabinet. I still have coffee cabinets, all the time," she said.
Another Warren resident, Tracey Francis, is also a fan. She remembers trudging through the snow for a cabinet during a memorable snow storm 30 years ago.
"I've been going there since I was a very young little girl. Back in the Blizzard of '78 a bunch of friends and I all walked up to Delekta's and got a cabinet. The roads weren't plowed through but we got through and the pharmacy was open."
One of the last
One of the pharmacy's most noticeable features is the old-fashioned soda fountain, a vanishing feature of old-time drug stores. The fountain itself has actually become its own draw. Two regulars drive over just about every day from New Bedford for a taste of their childhood. Jim Barton and Al Lowe said they once could enjoy old-fashioned cold treats from a traditional drugstore fountain in New Bedford, but no longer.
"We don't have any more fountains in New Bedford. They're all gone. The last little drugstore fountain went out four or five years ago," Mr. Lowe said.
Mr. Barton said he discovered Delekta about five years ago.
"I just came across this place. I was driving by and saw it was an old pharmacy. I said, 'I wonder if they have a fountain in there,' and I hit pay dirt. "
Ms. Lowney worked the soda fountain before training as a pharmacist. She remembers when a milkshake cost 10 cents, and a cabinet, a quarter.
The two gentlemen from New Bedford agreed that the cost of a cabinet and other cold treats has changed a great deal over the years, but it's still worth it.
"My first cabinet cost 10 cents. That had to be in 1942 or 1943. We call them frappes in New Bedford," Mr. Lowe said. Mr. Barton said he doesn't quite remember the cost when he first tried a cabinet.
"I don't remember because my folks paid for it," he said.
By Cindy VanSchalkwyk
cindyv@eastbaynewspapers.com