200 Trade Street

This building is attributed to local architect and contractor Thomas Keating. It is also known as the R. L. Marchant Building.

1889: Vacant

The May 1889 Sanborn Fire map shows a single-story shingled wood building. Behind the building is a well. This building is on the southwest corner of Trade and Victoria.
Behind the building, on Victoria Street, is a 2-story home.
Immediately to the south are three brick buildings, and the one beside this building is also vacant.

In January 1904, the building has had a second floor added and is listed as a domicile.
The building that was vacant to the south is now a bank.

The February 1911 Sanborn map shows that a new larger brick store is being built on this location. The well is gone. The building is listed as 216 on the Trade Street side and 110 on the Victoria Street side.
In 1910 Doctor Robert L. Marchant started construction on this building to house his Greer Drug Company. Thomas Keating was the architect, and it cost Marchant $8,500 to build.
Dr. Marchant himself lived in a beautiful large home kitty-corner, on the northeast corner of Trade and Victoria. Prior to this building, he ran "Marchant's Pharmacy" out of a 2-story brick building farther south down the same block of Trade Street, right beside the Smith & James building (though S&J didn't move in until 1916).
Immediately to the south a new brick grocery store has been added between this building and what was a bank in 1904. The result is the continuous row of brick storefronts we still have today.

By March of 1922 the structure is shown as a 3-story brick building, the tallest building in Greer. And each story is tall: the ground floor has a 16-foot ceiling, and the two above it are each 12 feet. There is a small loading dock on the rear south side.
Because "Rexall" was the logo on the sign, all of Greer called it the Rexall drug store or Marchant's drug store - despite the large "Greer Drug Company" painted on the side of the building.
An early undated photo by C.W. Drace shows that "DR. DRUMMOND, DENTIST" had an office on the second floor. Another photo shows a side window labeled "DOCTOR" with an illegible name, which appears to be a separate medical doctor's office.
Though the years are uncertain, at some point the Bailey Masonic Lodge met on the third floor.

The name confusion is illustrated in a postcard from the era which shows the boldly painted "Greer Drug Co." on the side of the building, yet the postcard is titled "The Rexall Store, Greer, S.C."
By January 1930, an extension had been added to the back of the building.
To the west along Victoria Street, a new building has been added between the drug store and the house. It is a 2-story brick building with offices on the first floor and the Telephone Exchange on the second floor.
In March of 1951, this building remains the same. However, the brick building immediately to the south has been removed and replaced with a new larger brick building, which houses a restaurant.
The building behind the drug store now holds a medical clinic on the first floor. Given the previous location of a dentist and doctor on the second floor, it seems likely that this was the center of medical care in town. At this time, the Telephone Exchange was still in operation on that building's second floor.

The 1989 city directory lists the bookstore as occupant, as does the 1997 state historic building survey.

As part of a city renovation known as the "Center-G" cityscape project, the original Rexall sign and a pharmacy sign were reinstalled on this building as a tribute to their history, though the occupant is no longer a drug store.

200 Trade Street

Building/business history

Occupants and history of 200 Trade Street