On Oklahoma Avenue, across from City Hall, lies a small museum and garden that desperately needs volunteers.
Mainly, it’s the Oklahoma Frontier Drug Store Museum’s neighbor, the Apothecary Garden, that is short on help and could use a few hands and tools to maintain the foliage.
“I think this is probably the worst the garden has ever been. It’s like a jungle in there,” said Pam Ekiss, the daughter of the former museum curator and pharmacist, Mark Ekiss. “We mostly need help with the weeds. They grow fast and the trick is just trying to keep up.”
The Apothecary Garden has built-in sprinklers that activate automatically. This means that no watering is needed and the plants are healthy, but so are the weeds.
“The garden is always open and you can come on your own time to help,” Ekiss said. “Coming in the mornings is nice because it’s not hot and downtown is real quiet. No cars and just a few people jogging.”
With museum pieces in the 2023 film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” starring Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio, officials at the Frontier Drug Store Museum can now say they have a few items linked to a Golden Globe award.
And, despite a recent large donation containing hundreds of pharmaceutical antiques, that staff could use more help Tuesdays through Fridays. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, but pharmacy students work on the weekend.
The Gaffney building, where the drug store museum and the Guthrie News Leader sit side-by-side, was built in 1890. It was home to the first permanent drug store in Oklahoma territory.
Drugstores were an important component of American society at the time because they housed a place for medicine, socializing, veterinary supplies, tobacco and more. Decades later, a congregation of Oklahoma pharmacists eventually turned part of the building into the museum, opening on September 13, 1992.
The Oklahoma Pharmacy Heritage Foundation then created the apothecary garden as a place to educate visitors about the many natural plants that are used for medicine. Although the original board of pharmacists are long gone, the exhibit and garden are still up and running, thanks to the women at the museum.
So, if you want to lend a hand to the Oklahoma Frontier Drug Store Museum or love gardening and weeding, give the museum a call at (405)-282-1895 or swing by at 214 W. Oklahoma Ave.