At Pacolet and Trade streets in downtown Tryon’s historic district sits a stately brick building. Once a popular community gathering place, today the building has taken on new life. The Nest Artisan Market occupies the street level space, with Harper Eatery & Pub offering comfort food and small plates below.
Passersby could be excused from knowing the building’s minor literary claim to fame. Except, a historic plaque has been posted on the corner of the building reading “Missildine’s Drugstore 1913.”
A Short History of Missildine’s Drugstore
The building at 13 S Trade Street was built in 1913 to replace an earlier building that burned. Maj. William Strong, who worked on several prominent buildings in Tryon, oversaw the construction. The first level of this corner brick building housed Missildine’s Drugstore upon completion. Upstairs, the building contained offices occupied by Dr. Earle Grady, an early Tryon physician, and others. A large hall accommodated meetings of the local Chamber of Commerce, Masonic Lodge, USO, and other civic groups. Among its notable features, it was the first building with steam heating in Tryon!
Missildine’s Drugstore was run by E.E. Missildine, a native of Lebanon, Missouri who moved to Tryon in 1895. Before becoming a pharmacist, he worked as a teacher and tutor in town. As a druggist, Missildine ran a popular and prominent business, often called the “Big City Store.” Missildine’s sold coal, ice, books, paints, and flowers among its fare. It also offered a laundry service and an ice cream bar. The popularity of the drugstore may have boosted Missildine’s political clout, as well—He served several terms as mayor of Tryon.
In the 1960’s, Missildine’s merged with the Tryon Pharmacy and moved to a different location. It was purchased to house the Blue Ridge Weavers until the mid-1970s. Then, the building was remodeled and operated as Tryon Federal Bank for some years in the late 20th century. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Tryon Historic District.
Missildine’s Literary Claim to Fame
The popular celebrity author F. Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby) stayed in a series of places in Asheville throughout the 1930s. He would visit the area frequently to see his wife, Zelda, who was receiving treatment for her mental health at Highland Hospital in Montford. During at least one of his visits to Western North Carolina, F. Scott spent some time in Tryon. While in town, he fell in love with the ice cream at Missildine’s Drugstore. In fact, it was so tasty, he wrote a poem about the drugstore, probably on a napkin.
The poem began:
Oh Missildine’s, Dear Missildine’s
A dive we’ll ne’er forget.
The taste of its banana splits
Is on our tonsils yet.
Even at the time, F. Scott would have been one of the more recognizable figures to grace the entry of the store. Today, his visit is commemorated on the plaque that hangs outside the front window.
The Mystery of the Missing Napkin
Nowadays, if a celebrity visits a restaurant or store and signs an autograph, patrons can expect to see it framed on the wall. But not so for F. Scott’s napkin poem—it is thought to be missing!
A 1977 article in a Spartanburg newspaper states that F. Scott gave the napkin to his friend, Clara Edwards of Tryon. Edwards, who worked at the post office during her Tryon friendship with F. Scott, said the poem meant nothing to her and she gave it to an employee in the drug store. But then what came of it?
If this napkin still exists today, we wonder where it is. It would make a quirky little addition to the F. Scott research library.
Visit “Missildine’s Drugstore” for Yourself!
If you’d like to see the site of the drugstore whose banana splits were hard for F. Scott Fitzgerald to forget, it’s easy to find! Stroll along Trade Street in Tryon until you get to the corner of Pacolet Street. And if you go, remember to cross the street and read about the Tryon Horse. Tryon, NC is full of interesting historical and literary stories.