Skillern Drug Store

Teresa,
Copied this off the Minyards web site.
Coppell, Texas-based Minyard Food Stores currently operates 32 Minyard, 20 Sack'n Save and 21 Carnival Food Stores, in addition to 14 gasoline stations. The company continues into the new millennium under the leadership of the family's second generation. Liz Minyard and Gretchen Minyard Williams lead the 73-store supermarket chain as co-chairwomen of the Board and co-CEO's, making Minyard's the largest privately held company in the metroplex headed by women and the 16th among the top women-owned companies in the United States. They are joined at the helm by Bob Minyard, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and J.L. "Sonny" Williams, President and COO. With revenues topping $1.5 billion, Minyard's is the 12th largest private company and the 19th largest employer in Dallas.
Jim Bicknell

Thanks Jim. That answered alot of questions. The best I can remember about those folks, they would all have to be in their seventies. Nothing wrong with that. I just remember Sonny when I was a kid. I feel they have all done well through the years. Tough business. Thanks again,
B

A bit of trivia. The first and original Minyard's store is on the Minyard's Warehouse property in Coppell. The little store sets at the corner of Bethel Rd. and Freeport in Coppell, Tx.

I was born at Methodist Hospital in the early 1950's and raised in Oak Cliff in the Kessler Park Area. I have lived in Oak Cliff all my life and graduated from Sunset High. I do not ever remember a Skillern's at Hampton Road and Clarendon Avenue. Mrs. Skillern lived at Montclaire and Colorado in Kessler Park.

The Dallas County Tax Assessors office shows that the property located at the southwest corner of Hampton Road and Clarendon Avenue, known as 1101 South Hampton Road, was not built until 1959. Midway Auto Supply has been in this location since 1960. I cannot find a Skillern's listed in any of the old City Directories at Hampton/Clarendon. 1104 South Westmoreland at Clarendon, which is where the Skillern's Drug Store was located, now has a Wallgreens on the property. The original building at 1104 South Westmoreland was torn down and rebuilt by Walgreens in 1996. Skillern's was at the northeast corner of the small strip shopping center and Safeway Grocery Store was at the southeast end of the strip. There were several small businesses such as a shoe repair shop in between the two major stores in that strip. Jack in the Box was across from Skillerns to the north. Jack in the Box was built in the early 1960's. Although remodeled numerous times since it was opened, Jack in the Box remains in the same location.

I remember going to the Skillern's Drug Store at Westmoreland and Clarendon as well as the one at the corner of Edgefield and Davis streets. The building at the southwest corner of Edgefield and Davis was built in 1937 and the building still stands; however, the store front was modified slightly over the years. A dollar store now occupies that space. Mom says that the Davis Street store was originally at West Davis and Clinton Avenue (across from the Kessler Theater) that later moved one block away to Edgefield. I have verified the Davis/Clinton location in the 1930 City Directory. Both of these locations had the soda fountains. The Page Drug at Falls Drive and Westmoreland also had a small soda fountain; however, after the Orange Julius was built in front of the nearby Kroger, they removed it. Orange Julius (on the Westmoreland side of the Kroger parking lot) was torn down in the early 1980's. Kroger moved out of the store around 2005.

[www.historicaerials.com] clearly shows that building in 1955. I think it is much older than that. I remember it being a drug store.

we traded at the airway drug store on denton drive on the west side of love field they also gave charge accounts what i would not give for one of thier hamburgers and a cherry coke. life aint as good as it used to be

sadly minyard's gave up the fight against all the grocery competition in dallas and sold out. sonny williams and his wife bought the old highland park pharmacy and are running it. tom thumb bought out clay page years ago and all his free standing drug stores and later started building the huge tom thumb food and drug stores



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2012 12:45PM by rojinks.

the skillerns in the walnut hill shopping village had to have the best soda fountain ever