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History of the Christiansted Apothecary Hall on St. Croix Virgin Islands
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Apothecary Hall History
St. Croix Virgin Islands |
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from "Christiansted Apothecary Hall"
by George B. Griffenhagen - Pharmacist
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© 1996 St. Croix Landmarks Society |
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Everything was looking rosy in 1815 for the Danes residing in
St. Croix. The British, who had
been occupying the Caribbean island for a dozen years, returned St. Croix
to Denmark in 1815. Sugar cane plantations mUltiplied, and the worldwide
market for rum continued unabated.
Christiansted,
founded in 1735 by the Danes on the site of an earlier French settlement
called Bassin, Inow served as the capital of the Danish West Indies, and
the population had increased to 5,000 people.
The newly appointed surgeon for the Danish military garrison in
Christiansted,
Paul-Elias Schlegel (1784-1849), sought a pharmacist to prepare medicines
for his troops. A 28-year-old Danish pharmacist accepted the challenge,
arriving in St. Croix on November 18, 1816, to assume his new position.
He was Peder Eggert Benzon, born in
Vestenskov, Denmark, on October
27, 1788, son of Lorentz Jacob Benzon (1740-1799) and Dorothea Bertelsen
1764-1808). After commencing work at the age of sixteen in a Vesterbro
pharmacy, Benzon apprenticed pharmacy from 1804 to 1809 in the Hofapotek
in Copenhagen, and he passed the Danish pharmaceutical examination on
June 24, 1814.1
By 1818, Benzon had outfitted a Pharmacy Laboratory in Christiansted there
he distilled large quantities of
pharmaceuticals2 for the
military garrison as well as for other pharmacists and physicians in the
Danish West Indies.3
On January 18,1819, for
example, Benzon wrote in his diary that he "distilled 30 pots of
Spirits." When he wasn't engaged in his Laboratory, Benzon was taking
excursions throughout the Danish West Indies to study the flora, and to
send botanical specimens to colleagues in
Copenhagen.
As he was distributing his freshly prepared distillates, Benzon
observed that other St.
Croix pharmacists were dispensing what he described as "defective
preparations." Then on
April 14, 1819, Benzon wrote in his diary that he had been named official
inspector for all pharmacies, as well as inspector of all imports of drugs
into St. Croix. By 1821,
Benzon was recommending the expulsion of other St. Croix pharmacists,4
but apparently he did not have the authority to implement his
recommendations.
 Unable to correct this
situation by expelling those pharmacists whom Benzon did not feel were
providing acceptable medicines, he applied in 1826 for a privilegium
exclusivum (a Royal Danish monopoly) to operate the only pharmacy in
St. Croix. On December 1, 1826, Benzon was approved by the Danish
government to open a pharmacy, and on December 18 he advertised that his
Pharmacie was located at No. 50 King's Street.5 On July
19, 1927, Benzon announced "Leeches [for blood-letting] for Sale at the
Pharmacy in King's Street, No. 50, in this Town."6
 Finally, on December 10, 1827,
Benzon received his privilegium exclusivum for all of St. Croix.
Benzon must have anticipated this action that gave him a royal monopoly to
operate the only pharmacies in St. Croix. because he purchased the
building at No.4 Company Street in 18277.
Then on January
8, 1828, Benzon advertised that he and his family had moved to "the House
No. 4 corner of Company and Queen's Cross Streets in
Christiansted,"
and he established "a Dispensary...where those who may require Medicines
at night will be pleased to apply."8
 Taking advantage of his royal monopoly, Benzon announced that he
would open on August 9,
1828, "the Filial Apothek (Dispensary Establishment) in
Frederiksted...agreeable to the Royal Government's Resolution." Benzon
advised that the Frederiksted pharmacy would be "under the direction of
Candidatus Pharmaciae Mr. B. H. Winding as Provisor for the Establishment
[and] is hereby made known for the information of the Public and the
practicing Physicians in the Town of
Frederiksted
and its environs." Benzon signed the ad as "The royal privileged
Pharmaceutical Establishment for St. Croix." 9
Benzon was elected in 1829 as
Christiansted "judge" (whose
duties were more like those of a "chief constable"), a position which he
held until 1834. Commencing in the following year, Benzon was identified
with the title of "Captain," and he also served on the five man "building
committee for the rehabilitation of the Danish Church of Christiansted."10
In 1838, Benzon engaged Albert Heinrich Riise of
St. Thomas to operate the
Christiansted Central Pharmacy, giving Benzon more time to investigate the
flora of the islands. In exchange for his services, Riise's pharmacy was
granted a privilegium exclusivum for St. Thomas by the Danish
government.11-13 The following year, Samuel Frederik Grove
(1802-1835) was engaged to operate the Frederiksted pharmacy.14
Benzon returned to Copenhagen in 1844, where he died on July 24, 1848.
 Peder Benzon had married Ida Caroline Marie Didrichsen on
September 11, 1824, in
Christiansted, and the couple had a total of nine children. Following
Peder Benzon's death, Ida moved back to
Christiansted
where she lived above the pharmacy, and maintained ownership of the
pharmacy. Their son, Theodor Hornemann Becker Benzon (1828-1885) managed
the pharmacy from 1849 until 1878.15 During this period, the
Danish Minister of Finance announced on April 30, 1875, in the St.
Croix Avis newspaper that the 1868 Danish Pharmacopeia "shall
be adopted for use in the Danish West India Islands," and that all "drugs
and medicines shall be prepared in the manner prescribed by the said
Pharmacopeia."
Both
pharmacies were sold in 1878 by Ida Benzon to Danish pharmacist Alfred
Paludan-Muller (1851-1924) who settled in St. Croix in 1872.16
Paludan-Muller also purchased the adjoining building in 1882 for his
office as agent for the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool, England.17
By 1888, the pharmacies were identified with exterior signs reading
"Apothecary Hall," a term according to Poul Kruse of Copenhagen which was
an English translation of the Danish term Apoteksbygningen.
At the turn of the century,
Copenhagen pharmacist Johannes
Cramer-Petersen (1878-1942) arrived in
Christiansted
to join the staff of the leprosy hospital, and during his stay in the
Danish West Indies, he also worked for Paludan-Muller 1901-1903 in the
Christiansted pharmacy.18
 The Frederiksted and Christiansted pharmacies were sold to Danish
pharmacists Hans Boje (1872-1949) and Niels Johannes Arnold Larsen
(1867-1934) in September 1904, and ten years later pharmacist Boje bought
out Larsens' share.19 When the Danish West Indies was
purchased by the United States in 1917 as a defensive strategy to protect
the Panama Canal during World War I, the U.S. government renamed the
island territory as the U.S. Virgin Islands, and took away Boje's pharmacy
monopoly. Boje received compensation from the Danish government for the
loss of his monopoly, and he continued operation of both pharmacies until
he sold them to Vilhelm Frederickson of
St. Croix in July 1945.
 Frederickson immediately sold the Frederiksted Apothpcary
Hall to Axel Schade who took possession on
July 1, 1945. The
Christiansted Apothecary Hall to non-pharmacist Laurence C. Merrill who
took possession on June 1, 1946, since Boje had retained the right to
operate the pharmacy until May 31, 1946. Merrell hired pharmacists to
operate the Christiansted pharmacy until it was closed in 1970.20
The Frederiksted Apothecary Hall was sold by Axel Shade in 1977 to
non-pharmacists Dora and Maxwell Martin from the British Virgin Islands,
and they still operate the pharmacy by employing registered pharmacists.21
 While all of the original pharmaceutical shelfware from the
Frederiksted Apothecary Hall has disappeared, the owners of the
Christiansted Apothecary Hall preserved their early shelfware and
equipment. Lee Platt, then director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society,
convinced Mr. Merrell to donate over 600 pharmaceutical items to the
Society. Platt then constructed furniture depicting "an authentic Danish
pharmacy as it might have appeared around 1840," and replaced some of the
deteriorated labels on the handsome Danish apothecary jars. The pharmacy
restoration was then installed at the
Whim Museum near Frederiksted.22
 In 1996, the then
Whim Museum executive director,
Barbara Hagan-Smith, felt that the proper location for this unique
apothecary restoration was in Christiansted, and she obtained permission
from the current owner of the original building, David Hayes, to move the
collection. Thus this 150 year-old-Christiansted Apothecary Hall is now
open as a pharmacy museum in its original location. |
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Footnotes |
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1. Theriaca, Dansk
Farmacihistorisk Selskab, Copenhagen, Denmark, 375 pages, August 1967.
(This pUblication is devoted to a Danish language transcript of the diary
and letters of pharmacist Peder Eggert Benzon during his stay in
Christiansted.) |
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2. The following products were
manufactured in quantity by Benzon:
Acidum Huriaticum Oxygenatum
was first reported
as having been prepared in quantity by Benzon on July 25, 1821. The
preparation was official in the Danish Pharmacopeia of 1805; the
name was changed to Aqua Chlorata in 1840, and to Sodium
Chloride in 1868. The 1831 American Dispensatory identifies the
product as Huriate of Sodae or
Common Sea Salt.
Benzon apparently believed that his product was more pure
than sea salt.
Alcohol
Vini was first
reported as prepared in quantity by Benzon on December 13, 1819, for Peter
Ravn (1788-1839), a pharmacist from Aarhus who settled in St. Thomas. The
1831 American Dispensatory describes the product as Spirit of
Wine or Alcohol Dilutus.
Bay-Spirit
or Bay-Water was first
produced by Benzon on April 1, 1819, which he described as "a new
product." Many years later pharmacist A. H. Riise of St. Thomas claimed to
be "the original manufacturer of Double Distilled Bay Rum." In 1888, Dr.
Charles Edwin Taylor (see footnote #7) personally visited the Riise
pharmacy, and described the product as "an invaluable antiseptic in the
sick room."
Liqvor
Ammonii Caustici was
first reported as having been prepared in quantity by Benzon on February
10, 1819. The preparation was official in the Danish Pharmacopeia
of 1805, 1840, and 1850. The 1831 American Dispensatory describes
this product as Water of Caustic Ammonia, and recommended it as a
liniment.
Liqvor
Anodynus Hineralis Hoffmanni
was first reported as having
been prepared in quantity by Benzon on January 26, 1819. According to the
Danish Pharmacopeia of 1805, 1840, and 1850, this preparation is
the same as Spiritus Sulphurico-Aethereus. The 1831 American
Dispensatory describes it as Sweet Spirit
of Vitriol
or Sulfuric Ethereal Liquor.
Naphtha Vitrioli
was first reported as
having been prepared in quantity by Benzon on October 10, 1820. The
product was called Aether SUlphuricus in the Danish Pharmacopeia
of 1805, 1840, and 1850. The 1831 American Dispensatory
describes Naphtha as Bitumen Petrolatum or Barbadoes Tar.
Aether Sulphuricus or Vitriolic Ether was prepared by
distilling sulfuric acid with various compounds such as Naphtha.
Spiritus Lavandulae Simplex
was first reported
as having been prepared in quantity by Benzon on September 1, 1820. This
preparation was official in. the Danish Pharmacopeia of 1805, and
is described in the 1831 American Dispensatory as Spirit of
Lavender. It was employed as a "warm stimulating aromatic."
Spiritus
Henthae Piperate Concentratus
was first reported as having
been prepared in quantity by Benzon on December 4, 1820. The preparation
was called Pebermyntedraaber in
Denmark, while
the 1831 American Dispensatory describes it as Spirit of
Peppermint.
Spiritus Nitri Dulcis
was first reported as
having been prepared in quantity by Benzon on July 27, 1819. Saltpetre
Ether was official in the Danish Pharmacopeia of 1805, 1840,
and 1850. The 1831 American Dispensatory describes the product as
Sweet Spirit of Nitre or Spirit of Nitrous Ether,
recommending it to "strengthen the stomach."
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3. Among those for whom Benzon
was distilling medicines were Dr. Jarvis Rhoebuck (1779-1857), a
Philadelphia physician who settled in St. Croix; Peter Ravn (1788-1839), a
pharmacist from Aarhus who settled in St. Thomas; and pharmacist Albert
Heinrich Riise (1810-1882) of
St. Thomas.
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4. In 1818, Benzon wrote in his
diary that he was impressed with the pharmaceutical preparations of
pharmacist Tjeneste, but by 1821 Benzon was calling for Tjeneste's
expulsion for dispensing defective preparations. As early as 1819, Benzon
had inspected Varelager's pharmacy finding defective preparations.
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5. Dansk Vestindisk
Rigierings Avis,
January 1, 1827. It is interesting to note that Benzon's first newspaper
ad promoted "Wine, Bay-Spirits, Liquers, &c. as usual," but he makes no
mention of pharmaceuticals. It is also significant that Benzon's ad was
published only in English, while most other ads were published in both
English and Danish. This suggests that Benzon was prepared to compete with
other pharmacies in St. Croix in the event that his "royal privilege" was
not forthcoming, and he was promoting his products to the English-speaking
residents rather than to the Danish-speaking residents. Benzon wrote to a
colleague in Copenhagen
dated September 7, 1827, that his pharmacy was called the Central-Apotheket,
but his 1827 newspaper ads describe it simply as "Pharmacy" or "Pharmacie."
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6. Dansk Vestindisk
Rigierings Avis, July 23, 1827. Leeches (Hirudo medicinalis)
were considered the least painful means of blood-letting, a
highly-esteemed therapeutic measure for the treatment of inflammatory
processes. |
7. Kim Madsen's typewritten
report entitled, "Extraction of Land Register of Christiansted, St.
Croix," Denmark, 1985, confirms .that Peder Benzon purchased
No.4 Company Street
in 1827.
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8. Dansk Vestindisk
Rigierings Avis,
January 8, 1828. This is five years earlier than the August 27, 1832, date
ascribed for establishment of Apothecary Hall in an anonymous and undated
typewritten document in the files of the St. Croix Landmarks Society.
There was a cholera epidemic sweeping the Danish West Indies in August
1832, and a government proclamation published in the Dansk Vestindisk
Rigierings Avis mentions that the "royal privileged pharmaceutical
establishment for St. Croix" was responsible for providing necessary
medicines to treat those inflicted with cholera. It may be that someone
saw this notice concluded in error that this was the date of the
establishment the Christiansted pharmacy.
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9. Dansk Vestindisk
Rigierings Avis,
August 2, 1828. The Danish Apothek is Pharmaceutical
description kongelige privilegerede Central translated into
English as royal privileged Establishment.
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10. The Christiansted Lutheran
Church displays a memorial on the right side of the altar which reads:
"This memorial was raised by the citizens of St. Croix...in the former
Danish Church of
Christiansted [and] moved here in 1835. The [five man] building committee
for the rehabilitation of this church [included] Peter Eggert Benzon."
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11. Even though Benzon's diary indicates that Riise was operating a
pharmacy in St. Thomas some years earlier, Charles Edwin Taylor Leaflets from
the Danish West Indies, originally published in
1888 by William Dawson, London,
states that Apothecary Hall in St. Thomas was established by A.H. Riise in
1838. The 1838 date records the year that Riise was granted his own
privilegium exclusivum for
St. Thomas by the Danish government.
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12. The St. Thomas Daily
News for November 28, 1988, reports that Albert Riise returned to
Copenhagen in 1867, leaving the pharmacy in the. hands of Alfred Jorgenson
who was later to become Riise's son-in-law. Riise's sons, Valdemar and
Karl, returned to St. Thomas to take over the management of the pharmacy
after their father died in 1882. In 1890, Karl sold his share in the
pharmacy to Valdemar who continued to operate the pharmacy until 1913 when
he sold it to Copenhagen pharmacist Ole Poulson. In 1828, Isidor
Paiewonsky purchased the pharmacy and expanded the business to include
liquor, tobacco, jewelry, and Oriental rugs. The pharmacy department was
still being operated by Norbert Kriegel in 1970, but soon thereafter the
pharmacy department closed. Today the business operates in Charlotte
Amalie as A.H. Riise Gift Shops.
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13. The Monthly Illustrator,
volume 15, #5,
January 1898, reports that Valdemar Riise was born in 1853 during a visit
of his parents to their native Denmark. Valdemar obtained his pharmacy
diploma in Denmark and
supplemented his pharmacy experience in Dresden and Leipzig, Germany, as
well as at Pharmacie Centrale in Paris, before settling in St.
Thomas.
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14. The Frederiksted Apothecary
Hall claims to have been founded in 1839, even though it was established
in 1828 as a branch of Peder Benzon's "royal privileged Pharmaceutical
Establishment for St. Croix." The 1839 date records the year when Samuel
Grove commenced operating the Frederiksted pharmacy.
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15. Poul R. Kruse letter dated
Hay 30, 1996. The 1846 census reports that Peder Benzon's wife was born in
Copenhagen in 1802. The 1860 census reports that Theodor Benzon married
Eliza Benzon who was'described as a "candidate pharmacist."
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16. Poul R. Kruse letter dated
June 14, 1996, reports that Alfred Paludan-Huller was born in Beder near
Aarhus, Denmark, Harch 31, 1851, and died in Frederikberg, Denmark,
January 1, 1924. The anonymous and undated typewritten manuscript entitled
"History of Herrill's Apothecary" in the St. Croix Landmarks Society
states that this sale took place in 1886. However, Madsen has confirmed
that Paludan-Huller purchased the Christiansted pharmacy in 1878.
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17. Various advertisements in the St. Croix Avis 1888-1891.
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18. Lars Cramer-Petersen of
Bronshoj, Denmark, letter dated
Hay 20, 1996.
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19. Poul R. Kruse letter dated
June 14, 1996, reports that Hans Boje was born in
Randers, Denmark, in
1872, and died on June 9, 1949. Niels Johannes Arnold Larsen was born in
Valby, Denmark, August 3, 1867, and died November 26, 1934.
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20. John A. Starr, typewritten manuscript dated 1970 preserved at
the St. Croix Landmarks Society.
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21. As early as 1871, the
Frederiksted Apthecary Hall was taking on a look of the present pharmacy.
A visitor to St. Croix observed in Harper's New Monthly Magazine
(December 1871, page 200) that "there is but one apothecary's shop in the
place [Frederiksted] where are sold the most incongruous articles,
including besides the drugs, china, toys, tea, wine, stationery,
confectionery, and other sundries alien to the proposed business."
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22. Rosamond C. Hughes,
"Christiansted Apothecary Hall," The Postkassen, newsletter of
the St. Croix Landmarks Society, Spring 1993. |
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