One year before the USA marks its 250th birthday, Carl’s Drug Store achieved a milestone in 2025, celebrating its 200th year in Greencastle. This enterprise has kept the town safe and healthy for two centuries. While performing that ageless service, Carl’s left an indelible imprint on Greencastle’s business and civic communities.
Carl’s Drug Store’s incredible longevity and continued success are a result of the founding family’s exceptional work ethic. The first owner, Adam Carl, established that high standard. Carl was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1800. He later moved to Carlisle and worked in a pharmacy as a young man. Carl completed his education to become a pharmacist at age 24 and, in 1825, opened his now-famous business at 13 S. Carlisle St. in Greencastle. At that time, the town was in its infancy with 900 residents. Most of Carl’s first customers arrived on horseback.
During that era, electricity was still unharnessed, and no machines existed to manufacture pills, so all medicinal products were handmade at Carl’s Drug Store. Adam Carl was a well-trained pharmacist and proficient in the cures of that era. His meticulous daybook recorded every prescription he filled. The medicinal aroma of restorative compounds, weighed on a scale and mixed with a mortar and pestle, wafted into the noses of customers who came into Carl’s Greencastle store.
After opening the business, Adam Carl sought further achievements in his field and attended Washington Medical College in Baltimore. He became Doctor Carl in 1829. Carl’s son, William, was later invited to manage the family business in 1854. After that handover, Adam devoted most of his time to his medical practice. During the Civil War, rebel forces invaded Franklin County before the epic battle at nearby Gettysburg, and Dr. Carl treated wounded Union and Confederate soldiers.
Tragedy struck the Carl family when William died suddenly in 1874 at age 46. Doctor Franklin Bushey, Adam Carl’s son-in-law, took the helm at the family business for a time and kept it moving forward while Adam’s grandson, Charles, matured. He later graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1880. Charles Blair Carl bought the drug store business in 1888, and a third generation of Carl’s treated the ills and eased the pains of Greencastle’s citizens.
From 1825 until he died in 1891, Dr. Adam Carl faithfully served the community, often packing up his medical bag and saddling a horse to travel a circuit to treat homebound patients in Franklin County. Local lore suggests that Dr. Carl treated the sick until a week before his death at age 90, and Greencastle residents never forgot his kind nature. His family would uphold that fine example for many years to come.
Carl’s Drug Store moved several times to new locations on Carlisle Street before settling at 6 East Baltimore St. in 1916. Charles Carl custom-built the handsome three-story building for his thriving business. During the first decades of the new century, Carl initiated many innovations in his pharmacy business to provide better care for his patients.
When Carl’s Drug Store celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1925, Calvin Coolidge was the United States President, and his sons had attended nearby Mercersburg Academy. The Carl family maintained steady control over their enterprise, and the drug store continued its year-after-year success. A Carl’s advertisement from that era read: “A burn or scald, a cut or bruise, we have reliefs for you to use.” The store not only filled prescriptions but also sold candy, cigars, stationery, photo supplies and toiletries.
Carl’s Drug Store survived the 1929 stock market crash and the early years of the Great Depression. In 1935, Charles Carl died, and his youngest son, Edward, assumed management of the business. When Edward’s mother later died, he became the third generation of the Carl family to own the enterprise. One aspect of Carl’s has never changed from generation to generation: the store’s reputation for excellent customer service.
Edward steered the ship for the next four decades, guiding the store through turbulent waters during the Depression-era 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. Echo Pilot Editor Fred Ziegler remembered the Baltimore Street store as more business-like than the earlier locations, but people still gathered there to reminisce and chat about Greencastle happenings.
When Edward approached retirement, he had no children to succeed him in running the business. During Christmastime in 1973, Edward decided on a hand-picked successor: Frank Ervin. Ervin’s father, Richard, was a long-time assistant at the pharmacy, and Frank had worked at Carl’s Drug Store during his boyhood. After Frank graduated from pharmacy school in Philadelphia and served an internship in Chambersburg, he came to work at Carl’s.
Ervin was only 22 years old when Edward Carl asked him to take over. “I thought, gee whiz, what do I do now?” Frank recalled. “But a friend advised me an opportunity like that may never come again, so I took it, and I’m glad I did.” Frank and his father went to a local bank and secured a loan. A new era in Carl’s Drug Store began on January 1, 1974, when Ervin took the reins. He was the first owner since 1825 outside the Carl family.
Edward Carl made a wise choice when he trusted Ervin with the family business, which retained its original name. Ervin led Carl’s Drug Store from the hand-ledger era into the computer age while honoring the store’s traditions and reputation for community service.
Ervin moved the store to 145 N. Antrim Way in 1999. The new location doubled the floor space and offered more parking. But Carl’s friendly downtown traditions remained in place, as one loyal customer recalled. “The pharmacist always explained why he prescribed the medicine, what it would do, and what to expect. I always thought when I went into Carl’s, I got as much help from Frank as I did from the medicine.”
Like Edward Carl before him, Frank Ervin didn’t have an heir to take over the Carl’s Drug Store dynasty, so he sold the business to pharmacist Roger Savage in 2013. Savage had a respected pharmaceutical pedigree, and he later sold Carl’s Drug Store to Dr. Wayne Myers in 2023. Myers is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and has owned Norland Pharmacy in Chambersburg since 2001.
Like the owners before him, Myers has the trusted experience to carry on Carl’s legacy by leading with professional ethics and a genuine concern for patients and the community. “We want to see Carl’s grow and continue the long tradition,” Myers said- “Greencastle has been very supportive. We have kept our high levels of service and care to meet the expectations of our customers.”
Carl’s Drug Store recently completed an interior renovation, and this makeover readies them for a 200th-anniversary celebration that coincides with the 42nd edition of Greencastle’s Old Home Week. This legendary business is a central component in this year’s festivities, as the traditional Old Home Week commemorative badge honors the company. On Friday, August 8, a celebration will take place at Carl’s Drug Store from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to honor two exceptional centuries in business.
The Carl family and Frank Ervin thoughtfully preserved many artifacts throughout the pharmacy’s long history. This summer, Greencastle’s Allison-Antrim Museum showcases many of those fascinating relics with a special exhibit now on display through the conclusion of Old Home Week.
Through four generations of Carl family leadership during 149 years and the stewardship of Frank Ervin lasting 39 years, Carl’s Drug Store entered 2025 with deep roots planted in Greencastle. That sturdy foundation has inspired its current ownership to guide the enterprise into its bicentennial year. Carl’s Drug Store is America’s longest-continuously operated pharmacy.
How did Carl’s outlast all those other businesses to achieve that number 1 ranking? “You take care of your employees and patients and everyone you meet with kindness and respect,” former owner Frank Ervin said.
Most Greencastle residents can’t envision their town without Carl’s. With the work ethic and community focus of founder Dr. Adam Carl still in place after 200 years, it’s likely that Antrim citizens will continue to enjoy the services of this local healthcare giant for many years to come.
