Hartley Pharmacy?????

I was riding the bus yesterday when my eye was attracted to a new bright green sign advertising the Hartley “Pharmacy.” This is a small independent apothecary shop that has managed to survive in an age dominated by CVS, Duane Reade, Rite Aid, and other pharmacy chains. The upsetting part is that for some untold number of decades, this shop, at 120th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, was known as Hartley Chemists, as seen below in a photo that was taken in July 2004 as part of an effort to document the cleaning of its building’s facade.

The Hartley Chemists. It had such a unique and memorable ring to it. Admittedly, this new name will probably improve their business, since the word chemist to mean a pharmacist has been homogenized out of the language. People probably though that if you walked in that place there would be a mad scientist in there with a goatee, wild white hair, a maniacal cackle and an array of steaming beakers and Bunsen burners. But still. That name was part of the shop’s charm. This turn of events is TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS!!!