New York Architecture Images-MacDougal Alley

	New York Architecture Images-Greenwich Village Bigelow Drugs
architect
location	414 Sixth Avenue just north of West 8th Street.
date	1902
style	Beaux-Arts
construction
type	Shop



notes	In 1838, when Van Buren was President, a small apothecary opened on Sixth Avenue just north of Clinton Place (now West 8th Street), and after it had changed hands a couple of times and moved two doors uptown, Clarence Otis Bigelow had established his "chemist's". The present building dates to 1902; the pharmacy still occasionally displays a 1905 ledger containing regular customer Mark Twain's name. Note the gas jets on the electric chandeliers: they still work, and in the 1965 and 1977 blackouts, they were turned on; Bigelow's remained open. NOTE: Bigelow's is unfriendly to photographers.
	The nation's oldest apothecary, Bigelow's has been a West Village mainstay for 160 years, providing prescriptions and healing remedies to countless dwellers. Originally located further south on Sixth Avenue, the store moved to its current location, at 414, at the turn of this century; and it was here that patrons like Mark Twain bought their toothpaste and later, John Belushi and Ed Koch would visit the soda fountain. "Bigelow was like Schwabs in Los Angeles explains owner Ian Ginsberg, evoking the West Coast drugstore where Lana Turner was supposedly discovered. "It was a hangout for people from all walks of life. There'd be society types next to Rockettes." Although the soda fountain was retired in 1984, Bigelow's is still a lively place with a diverse clientele, who now come there as much for the high-quality, hard-to-find beauty products and house-brand makeup line as for the other stuff. Mr. Bigelow, 18, Cool Cat, Poor Mouser C, 0. Bigelow Chemists exudes old-fashioned charm with its gilded gas-burning chandeliers, oak 1838 wood shelving and hand made tiles. But one of the landmark pharmacy's most venerable fixtures is gone. Mr. Bigelow, the store's resident cat fr more than 15 years. died two weeks ago. He was put to sleep at the age of 15 after developing a tumor. By all accounts, Mr. Bigelow was a special cat, good-natured but proud, loving but lordly. He occupied a special place in the hearts of Village residents since the day a soda jerk brought him around. The soda jerk died; Mr. Bigelow stayed on. "Customers came in just to visit the cat," Timothy Cannon, 29, a clerk at the pharmacy, said. '*They'd talk to the cat, sometimes to unbearable degrees." People would often come to the pharmacy. at 414 Avenue of the Americas, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, with treats, homecooked chicken or meat from a nearby delicatessen which added to Mr. Bigelow's ample girth. He weighed 18 pounds. -people would ask if the cat was pregnant," Laurie Koflkr, a pharmacist, said, "We'd say, 'No, he's not pregnant' " Mr. Bigelow's size was only part of what distinguished him. While he never achieved the celebrity or commercial success of Garfield or Morns, he garnered a respectable position in the world of books by charming local writers. He inspired a short story, "Asking Mr. Bigelow," by Susan Schwartz, which was published in "Cal Fanmstlc 111" (Daw Books. 1991), an anthology, and his picture graced the book "Cats at Work" (Abbeville Press, 1991). Mr. Bigelow's job, though, remains unclear - Mr Bigelow often licked the pharmacy's glass windows in the morning, sometimes for 40 minutes straight- A window cleaner. perhaps, but clearly, not an exterminator. "He wouldn't eat a mouse unless it was prepared by Balduccfs," Mr. Cannon said. "He was a real Garfield kind of cat - just really cool." Mr. Bigelow presided over the pharmacy from his favorite perch, a wooden chair meant for customers. "They'd never ask him to move," Ian J. Ginsberg, an owner of the pharmacy, said. "He'd jump down sometimes and let them sit. If he liked them, he'd jump into their laps." It seems Mr. Bigelow was more finicky about people than he was about food, and he seemed partial to the young. "He was the best baby sitter;" Sara Arncll, a customer. said. "My kids played with him while I shopped. They would practically pick hlm up by the. tail and sit on him, and he wouldn't do anything," But, Ms. Kolllcr said Mr. Bigelow was not always that courteous to employees. She is more fond of his successor, an unnamed year-old cat adopted from the A.S.P.C.A. "The new cat," she says, "has a better personallty."
contact	nyc-architecture.com
links	http://www.bigelowchemists.com/index.php