Pelot's Pharmacy Spans More Than a Century in Bradenton

The orange and blue sign that adorns the historic Davis building on Manatee Avenue is a recognizable landmark to many locals. The family-owned-and-operated pharmacy has over a century of service to the community. And like the city in which it resides, Pelot’s Pharmacy has a rich history.

The pharmacy is one of the oldest businesses in Manatee County. It originated in 1894 when Dr. John Crews Pelot purchased the existing pharmacy, Manatee Drug Company, from Enos Johnson for $600.  

Dr. Pelot grew up on his family’s plantation in northern Florida and eventually attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following his graduation, the Civil War broke out and Dr. Pelot enlisted in the Confederate army where he served as an assistant surgeon.

Although he lost a great deal of his land during the war, Dr. Pelot traded his remaining property in Gainesville for property in eastern Bradenton, then known as the city of Manatee, where he purchased Johnson’s drug store in 1894.

The rest is history.

The business withstood economic recessions, the Great Depression, hurricanes, and, after its move to its current location at 831 Manatee Avenue in 1939, the pharmacy even survived a fire that wiped out neighboring businesses such as the Wiggins Store in the late 1940s.

“My grandpa ran the pharmacy back then, but my father was the first one to arrive when the fire broke out,” recalled current owner, Robert Pelot.

“My dad started taking everything out of the store, but then my grandpa showed up and told him to put it back. He said ‘God will take care of us’ and - I can’t tell you whether it was an act of God or what, but the fire stopped right at that wall,” he said, pointing toward the back of the pharmacy.

The pharmacy has been passed down through five generations of the Pelot family, Dr. Pelot’s son, John James Pelot, took over the business in 1899 and ran it until 1955 when his son, John Crews, inherited it. In 1972, Robert Pelot purchased the business from his father and currently owns and operates the store with the assistance of three of his daughters, Amy Tindell, Erin Daniels, and Jessica Pelot.

“I grew up in this place,” Robert Pelot said. “I started coming here when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and I was already helping out back then. The same goes for my kids – they have grown up here, too.”

Pelot said that his grandchildren are all too young to know for sure what they want to be when they grow up, but that 9-year-old Rebecca recently told him that she, too, wants to be a pharmacist someday.

Having grown up in the pharmacy business, Pelot has been witness to the changes that have taken place in the industry.

“The biggest change to occur in the industry was the introduction of patent medicines,” Pelot said. “Even as recently as when my father started out, there was much more compounding. My great grandfather and my grandfather made most of their own medicine for the store by using natural herbs and plant based materials. They’d buy raw chemicals and mix them right here. Today, obviously, we don’t do that. Now we only sell synthetic patent medications that were made in a lab somewhere. There’s a big difference.”

The youngest Pelot to run the pharmacy shepherded in technology.

“The biggest change that I’ve seen during my own lifetime is the introduction of computers,” he said. “It changed the whole way that we deal with doctors’ records, prescriptions, and everything else.”

Pelot’s currently offers online services to its customers and even has its own Facebook page. But the owner made sure to retain the personal charm of the pharmacy's old-fashioned business roots.

“Personal service is what sets us apart from the big chains like CVS and Walgreens,” Pelot said. “We’ve been here for a long time, and we try to take care of each and every person on an individual basis.”

Pelot says that he has a number of loyal customers, some of whom were patrons of the store as far back as when his father and grandfather operated it in the 1940s and 1950s.

The loyalty goes both ways. Pelot said that in the early 1920s when circus mogul, John Ringling, arrived in Sarasota, his grandfather received advice from a colleague to leave Manatee County.

“He told him, ‘Manatee is going under, it’s not going to survive. Sarasota is the place to be now that that young guy, Ringling, is here.’ My grandfather was here to stay and dug his heels in, though. You would have to kill him to get him out of here.”

Today, walking through Pelot’s pharmacy is like going on a scavenger hunt to find all the pieces of history scattered throughout the store. At first glance, rows of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies dominate the drug store’s interior. Upon closer examination, however, there are a number of personal touches in the pharmacy that serve as a testament to its long history.

A counter that Robert Pelot’s grandfather, John James Pelot, built in 1914 sits against the back wall. An old-fashioned refrigerator is tucked away in another corner. Vintage bottles of Coca-Cola sit on an unobtrusive shelf, serving as a reminder of the bygone era when the pharmacy doubled as an ice cream shop with a soda fountain. Finally, hanging from the wall at the front of the store is a portrait of Dr. John Crews Pelot, the 19^th century patriarch of the family business.

As far as Robert Pelot is concerned, time has been kind to his family and their pharmacy.

“We’ve got quite a history with Manatee County,” said Pelot, who humbly attributes the business’ longevity to his belief that “God has always taken care of the family.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see what the future brings.”