Once upon a time in Ada

Things you didn’t know about your own hometown

By Lee Crouse
[email protected]

January 1937

CAMPUS LANDMARK to be RAZED, HOUSED PILL ROLLERS for 40 years. One of the landmarks on the Ohio Northern campus, the old Pharmacy building, is doomed. Bids for its removal are to be received on January 16, and it is be razed in 30 days. The unsightly three-story frame structure, home of the College of Pharmacy for more than 40 years and longtime meeting place of the Adelphian literary society, was moved to its present location at the rear of the campus in 1912, to make way for the Lehr Memorial building. Charles Ashbrook was the first head of the Ohio Northern College of pharmacy, organized in 1885. Student growth was so rapid that Dr. Lehr found it necessary to erect an new building. It was erected just south of the “old normal” and was occupied in 1894. The building was moved to the present location when the Lehr Memorial building was erected during the administration of President A.E. Smith, and continued its use until 1934 when it was deemed to antiquated and hazardous for further use.