Each year, the African-American Gallery of the Ethnic Heritage Museum starts the new year with an exciting new exhibit highlighting black history. This year’s Black History Month exhibit will showcase the history of Ruben’s Pharmacy. The exhibit will be unveiled on Sunday, February 2^nd from 2-4 p.m.  The exhibit will run until the end of May.  

Ruben’s Pharmacy was located at the corner of South Main and Morgan Street. The building was built in 1910 by Dr. T. H. Culhane and was known as the Culhane Block. The owner of Ruben’s Pharmacy, Ruben Samuel, Jr. was the first African-American pharmacist in the region.

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In 1925, Oscar Hodel and his brother Elmer opened a pharmacy with soda fountain in the corner store of the Culhane Block.  Oscar retired in 1967 and pharmacist Menroy Mills took over Hodel’s Pharmacy.  Mills founded the Ethnic Heritage Museum and served as its first Executive Director. When Menroy retired in 1978, he sold the pharmacy to Ruben Samuel.  Ruben’s Pharmacy operated until Ruben’s death in 2019. 

Ruben’s Pharmacy is now owned by Ruben’s sister Collettia “Cleta” Berryhill. Cleta worked with Ruben, and she now runs Cleta’s Stay & Sew in the pharmacy space. Cleta’s Stay & Sew offers free sewing classes to anyone who wants to learn. Berryhill also makes and sells vibrant ethnic and Afrocentric clothing and other merchandise.