Thurston Building

Thurston Building. , Built by Azor Thurston (1861-1922), analytical chemist, textbook author, and pharmacist, this 30 x 75 foot yellow brick building served continuously as a pharmacy for 115 years, until 2011. The Thurston family lived upstairs.

The two-story Romanesque building, with projecting round turret, boasted an elegant salesroom with tall carved oak cupboards and a 14 foot stamped steel ceiling. A journal library and large laboratory enabled compounding of the highly regarded patent medicines known as the Thurston Chemical Company Remedies.” Made with pure ingredients, they included Thurston's Pill's, "unequaled as a tonic and laxative,” and Sarsaparilla Compound, a blood purifier.

In 1879 Thurston entered The Ohio State University, graduating with a degree in analytical chemistry. He then earned a Pharmaceutical Chemist (Ph.C.) degree at the University of Michigan, where he helped found the Phi Delta Chi Pharmacy Fraternity in 1883. He was National President and the Grand Old Man” of the fraternity from 1915-1921.

In 1903 Thurston was appointed State Chemist for Ohio and served 19 years on the Dairy and Food Division of the Ohio Board of Agriculture. He was also an Instructor of Pharmacy at The Ohio State University.

In 1898 quick action saved the building's large French plate glass windows, which were boarded-up to withstand heat from the fire that destroyed 18 neighboring buildings In 2016 the largest window developed a crack and was replaced.