History of MCP on Granade

In 1959 Lem Nevil started plans to build a pharmacy. He began to look for a lot for this endeavor. He found one on the West side of the old Bulloch County Hospital. (Hospice is  now located where BCH used to be.) The lot was the one with a small street going down to Park Avenue on the North side. (Ogeechee Clinic was later located on this lot.) At that time, since the lot was in a residential area, it was necessary to obtain 'permission signatures' from all neighboring property owners for the business to be located there . This was done without any problems.

Unfortunately, there was a pharmacy owner downtown that did NOT want a new pharmacy in town. He went to one of the property owners and ask him to take his permission signature back....and that signature was unfortunately removed it from the list. The store could not be built on that lot. (This same pharmacist also went to Lem and ask him not to build a drug store. You have to understand, this was also a  time when it was almost impossible for a new doctor to come to Statesboro. "Small town politics and control.")

Lannie Simmons heard about all this and he was extremely upset over this petty injustice. He owned a lot on the corner of Grady and Granade Street. The lot had been sold to a local doctor for a site for a future office building. Due to a foreclosure it had been returned to Lannie Simmons. Lannie went to see Prince H. Preston, father of Anne, Lem's new bride, and told him he'd be happy to sell it to Lem and HE would get the signatures necessary for the building of the store. And he did just that! The price of the lot was $5,000.

This lot was on the front side of Bulloch County Hospital, one block down. (Years later the hospital was enlarged and named Bulloch Memorial Hospital. After this remodeling the front door of the hospital was located directly in front of the drug store.)

Construction started in January 1960 and was finished in the Spring of that year. Jones Lane was the contractor. It cost approximately $25,000 to build it and another $5,000 to 'basically' stock the shelves. We only had ONE of each item sitting on the shelves.

The trend in pharmacy design in the 1950's was to have the Pharmacy Department up front in the store. That was the way the original store was built. (That section is now the Gift and Greeting Card Department in the current store.) The Soda Fountain was very small and was on the back wall of the store.Soda Fountain History.

The Grand Opening was Spring of 1960 with Lem Nevil and Chester Hanberry in a partnership.

In 1970 the store was remodeled for the first time. It was enlarged by about one third of the size of the original store. The Pharmacy Department was moved to the back of the store. The Soda Fountain was moved to the South side wall that backed to Grady Street.

In 1984 BIG changes took place. The partnership was dissolved. The store was once again remodeled with a restaurant added on the East end of the building behind the Pharmacy Department. An Office was added on the North side of the Prescription Department. New fixtures, paint and carpet were added all over the store.

In January of 2006 the biggest remodeling took place since the beginning of the business.
The pharmacy department was just TOO small. All the modern technology equipment needed more room as well as the pharmacist needed more elbow room to work. The small storage room was incorporated into the Pharmacy Department. The back register area was enlarged. The front of the store had a 'bull pen' installed for that register. The entire store was gutted and done over. The OLD (45 years old!) ceiling tiles were removed and new ones added. Recessed ceiling lights replaced the old strip fluorescent lights that had been there since 1960. The gifts were moved to the front where the original Pharmacy Department was located in 1960.

By the end of February it was all finished....and SO nice.