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The Woodland Park Drug Store
By Steve Plutt, August 25, 2026
Woodland Park hasn’t had an actual hometown drug store for many years now. Today’s prescriptions are usually filled from inside of grocery stores, such as King Soopers or Safeway. There are also pharmacy chain stores, such as Walgreens or Rite Aid. But for now, the traditional drug store is undoubtedly a thing of the past in Woodland Park.
Shortly after Woodland Park was first incorporated, the local druggist here was Hallock and Meinhardt with Hallock managing the store. Then there was Mr. Mead C. Merrill who happened to have worked at Hallock and Meinhardt, and took over when they left.
Mr. Merrill was born in 1859 in Shiawassee County, Michigan. During his residency here in Woodland Park, he was active in local affairs and was elected mayor in 1897.
Because of health issues, Merrill sold his business to Albert Hoag in 1901 and moved back home to Michigan, where he died on October 2, 1906.
Even though the news clipping below verifies that purchase, there was not an “Albert Hoag” listed in either the ERA directory or the Colorado State Business directory or the 1900 US Census report in Cripple Creek or Woodland Park. Additionally, there is no record of Merrill selling to Hoag at the Clerk and Recorder’s office.
Also, those two directories did not show any druggist in Woodland Park in 1902 or 1903 but did show Mr. D.R. Burson as the area chemist in 1904 into 1906. No other information could be found on Burson. He was not listed in the 1900 or 1910 US Census report for Woodland Park.
Alexander Campbell Embree was the druggist in 1906 and remained so until 1911 and the start of 1912. He also was the Woodland Park assistant postmaster to his wife, Gertrude, during those years. In 1920, he took over for her as the postmaster. In 1910, Embree was also the Justice of the Peace in Woodland Park.
Following Embree was registered pharmacist Leonard J. Carrington who began his tenure in 1912. Carrington bought the drugstore from Embree that was located about where today’s Polaris dealership is. And like Embree, Carrington was also the postmaster at Woodland Park from January 6, 1909 until July 5, 1917. In 1912, Carrington had an assistant, Mr. K. L. Clack. Carrington remained our pharmacist for 9 years, until 1920.
According to the Annual Reports of the Colorado Board of Pharmacy documents, Thomas Burton James (1888-1938) came along after Carrington. Thomas was the druggist in Woodland Park from about 1920 until 1923. He left our area for a teaching job in Washington state.
In 1923, G. M. Embree, the spouse of A. Campbell Embree, took over the drugstore as the pharmacist. G.M. Embree was recognized throughout Woodland Park primarily through her marriage to her second husband, John C. Carroll, a Woodland Park Pioneer whom she wed in 1933 following the passing of her first husband, A. Campbell. Her full name was Gertrude Mary Embree Carroll.
As you can see from the business directory below, Gertrude’s store sold stationary, confectioneries, soft drinks, drugs and was the post office.
Gertrude continued serving the town of Woodland Park for many years. In her early days, she was a schoolteacher here in Woodland. She was appointed postmistress in 1918, and she continued in that position until her retirement on February 28, 1951. Gertrude was a president of the Progressive Dames Club, president of the local PTA and served as a member of the Woodland Park School Board. She was a long-time member of the Woodland Park Eastern Star. She wrote a weekly “Woodland Park News” article for many years. She died on March 20, 1972, and is interred in the Woodland Park Cemetery.
In 1936, after Gertrude, H. F. Naler, a longtime pharmacist in Colorado Springs, was Woodland Park’s newest druggist. Henry Frank Naler was born in 1886, down in Texas, and similar to his pharmaceutical predecessor Mead Merrill, Naler likewise served as mayor of Woodland Park during 1940.
Naler made the decision to construct his own building. So he bought lots 16 and 17, which were located in Block 7, from Mr. Fred Cowdrey on September 7, 1939. Those two lots today are known as 116 West Midland Avenue and its current venue is a coffee house.
Back in 1939, lot 17 already had a building on it, so when Naler bought the two lots, he added on to the existing building, connecting it to his new one, and established his own large pharmaceutical enterprise.
The Teller County Assessor's website shows that the 116 W. Midland building was built in 1929, and the U.S. Forest Service 1936 aerial photographs show that a small building was already situated on lot 17.
Furthermore, a June 28, 1940 Ute Pass Echo article tells that Naler expanded and added on to that building. The assessor's office shows that too. Naler then had the name “Woodland Drug Co.” registered as his trademark.
We also know he did indeed do construction work there, because on December 29, 1939, Naler actually had a mechanic's lien placed upon his property by the Newton Lumber Company of Colorado Springs. The legal basis of that was for the unpaid balance for lumber Naler purchased in October of 1939 in the amount of $388.37. In 1942, Naler satisfied Newton Lumber, and the lien was removed.
Naler’s store carried all the items that made drug stores successful in the 1940s and into the next few decades. That is, prescription medicines, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, cosmetics, candy, cigarettes, and household goods. They often would make special deliveries when necessary to ill customers.
In rural small towns across America, such as Woodland Park was prior to 1975, pharmacists frequently served as the initial medical contact for community members seeking treatment recommendations. Many residents could not afford driving all the way to Colorado Springs to visit a doctor, so our Woodland Park druggists provided diagnoses and care for a range of issues, from cuts, burns, and infections to colds, rashes, and even more serious conditions.
And that definitely was the case of the Woodland Drug Company, which continued caring for residents that way up until the early 1970s. I can certainly attest to those pharmacist diagnoses firsthand, i.e. Tom Bonifield, RPh.
This made drugstores essential community health centers, particularly in places like Woodland Park where local physician availability was inconsistent.
On top of all that, Naler and his Woodland Drug Company built a soda fountain which not only served as a social gathering place, it was also a revenue generating source. It offered things like Cherry Cokes, malts, banana splits, hamburgers and French fries along with other light meals. These soda fountain counters became community gathering spots for dozens of teenagers after school.
H.F. “Doc” Naler had a long reign here but sold his business to Mr. Ira D. Jones, a Pueblo stockman. Naler died in Texarkana, Texas in 1955.
Ira Jones was a cattle rancher down in Pueblo but lived in Woodland Park as well. At a July 12, 1945 Cripple Creek ceremony, he married Edith Bowdlear and made Woodland Park their main home.
Three months after his wedding, Ira lost his balance and fell completely down a flight of stairs leading to the basement of his business. The fall knocked him unconscious and he laid there for a while until Marguerite Johnson, who was employed by Ira, heard loud, heavy grasping coming from the bottom of the stairs. Transported to Glockner-Penrose hospital, he was found to have six broken ribs, both shoulders dislocated and a concussion.
Those of you who’ve been around a while will remember Marguerite as the wife of Johnny Johnson. They both operated the 3.2 joint “Trotters Chicken Shack” down at Crystola for decades and served the very best iron skillet fried chicken in the West.
Just about two and a half years after the purchase, Ira decided to sell his drugstore. So it was on November 24, 1948 that Hammond, Indiana residents, R. Wayne and Geraldine Cunningham were the new owners of the Woodland Drug Company. But the Cunninghams operated the drug store for a very brief period. Twenty months after their purchase, Wayne accepted a job offer in Yuma, Arizona and sold the business and moved.
The new owners were William (Bill) and Berneice Peck and their nephew, pharmacist Roland Montgomery. The trio came to Woodland Park on New Year’s Eve, 1949 and quickly become part of the community and bought the drug store on January 18, 1950.
Bill Peck was born on a farm in Missouri and Berneice in Pittsburgh, Kansas, where the couple first met and married in 1914. After their marriage, they had a brief stint living in Colorado Springs, then back to Kansas, then on to Bensinville, Illinois, located in the northwest burbs of Chicago. Bill was a machinist there with the Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. He was very active in local activities and for 12 years was the mayor of Bensinville.
Berneice was also very active and was the superintendent of the primary Sunday school for 25 years. She held membership in many social clubs, such as the Woman’s Club and the P.T.A. She also was a substitute schoolteacher in Bensinville.
When the Pecks did come to Woodland Park, they said it was like “coming home” as they had visited here during their residency in Colorado Springs.
Roland Montgomery, better known as “Monty,” was also from Pittsburgh, Kansas. He attended the University of Denver and the Capitol College of Pharmacy in Denver. For a short while he owned his own drug store in Palmer Lake.
During World War II, he served in the Navy. After his discharge, he worked in several pharmacies in Colorado Springs where he first met Doc Naler. It was Naler who told Monty about the drug store in Woodland Park being for sale, and even though he was interested in buying it, he did nothing about it at that time.
But now that the Pecks and Monty did own the business, they spent the next year making improvements and franchised with the Walgreen Agency. Their drug store had a large glass storefront and neon signage. One of the first things they did was to remove the old soda fountain and install a gorgeous brand new, 16-foot-long soda fountain with 10 chrome-based, plastic-topped stools. The fountain also had a beautiful, mirrored wooden backbar. They modernized the prescription service, added a cosmetics showcase and installed a wood framed glass cigar-candy showcase. They had a large magazine area and also added a section for cameras and film as well as other household supplies. They installed a very popular veterinary supplies section.
The Woodland Park drug store was now considered one of the finest and most modern drug stores in this part of the state. For their grand opening they gave away a brand-new Maytag washing machine. They installed an outdoor speaker and if you put a nickel in the jukebox, it would broadcast that music outside. It was really popular in December when they had Christmas carols on the jukebox.
The Peck-Mongomery drug store endured a long time in Woodland Park, over six years. Bill was the third Woodland Park pharmacist to be elected mayor here. But when Bill’s health declined, the pharmacy was put up for sale and he moved back to La Grange, Illinois to live with his daughter. Following surgeries and a lengthy illness, William Peck died in December of 1956.
Nine months prior to Peck’s death, Tom and Jane Bonifield bought the drug store on April 6, 1956. This purchase kicked off a lengthy chapter in the Bonifields' life story.
Everyone in my generation who grew up here in Woodland Park will vividly remember this family.
Thomas Elton Bonifield was born in 1928 and grew up in Indiana while Jane grew up in Illinois. He attended Purdue University and graduated from Purdue’s School of Pharmacy.
Tom was inducted into the Army in December of 1950 and served 18 months in Germany as a pharmacist. He later received his discharge from the military at Camp Carson in Colorado Springs, after which he and Jane made the decision to stay in Colorado. Four years later in 1956, they moved to Woodland Park with their two young children, Pam and Paula.
According to interviews with the Bonifields, the couple chose Woodland Park because of their confidence in its potential for economic growth and progress. The following year, Jane's brother Bob Karraker, himself a registered pharmacist, became a partner in the store. They began to grow their business by purchasing the liquor store building right next to it, which was located at the corner of Center and Midland Avenue.
The buildings were already connected to each other, so when they renovated the liquor store, they installed a door that opened straight into the drug store, essentially making one big building. In this new addition they mainly carried housewares and sporting goods.
It was a successful expansion for them, so much so that they obtained a franchise from Gambles department store which gave them better buying power and lower prices for their customers. It should also be noted that this is when they added the second floor onto their Gambles building where Jane and Bob’s mother and father lived.
Below is an old photo I have that will give you an idea of the relationship between the drug store and the old liquor store prior to Bonifield acquiring it.
Another income generating source for the business was to partition off a small area of the soda fountain, on the eastern side of the store, along the sidewalk. It was leased by the local barber, Howard Cordingley. The back door of the barber shop led straight into the soda fountain.
I remember when the barber shop was located there, but when the following owner, Jim Selby, was the owner. In the dog days of summer, Jim used to let us little kids hang out in his shop and read all the comic books he kept on hand. When he would cut my hair, he always gave me a dime so I could go into the soda fountain and get an ice cream cone.
In the summer of 1965, a group of Woodland Park business folks sat in the soda fountain discussing the formation of a Chamber of Commerce in town. And it was right there at that counter that Tom and Bob, Pete Brown, Bert Bergstrom, Clyde Sirles and others formed the Woodland Park Chamber that still exists today.
“A new young man in town” was another pharmacist, Al Born. Al started working at Woodland Pharmacy back in 1969 when he first moved here from Oregon. He immediately became active in Woodland Park. He also was the fourth druggist elected as mayor here. Born was asked in a 1976 interview why he didn’t just stay at home and watch TV, to which he replied, “Because I want to live in Woodland Park. I want to work for it. And I want to improve it.” Those familiar with Al can confirm his profound impact on the community—an enduring dedication that continues even as this story is being written.
In Woodland Park, Tom and Jane became the parents of two more children, Lora and Tommy. The whole family was very involved with their church, the First Baptist Church of Woodland Park. In 1974, Tom and Jane decided to sell their interest in the pharmacy so he could enroll in the Liberty Baptist College Seminary located in Lynchburg, Virginia. Tom graduated there, earning a Master of Divinity degree.
The photo below is a partial view of the north end of the soda fountain. The Woodland Park school kids of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, including myself, spent a lot of time sitting on those stools or in a booth with friends after school. If you got straight A’s on your report card, you got a free banana split here.
The Bonifields were so respected in town, that a very large going away party was held for the family at Town Hall. Mayor Carol Kenny proclaimed December 15, 1974 as the official “Bonifield Day” and gave the pair the first ever presented “Key to the City.”
The Bonifields moved to New England in August of 1979 and, along with their daughter Pam and her husband, founded and established the Plainville Baptist Church in Plainville, Massachusetts where Tom was the minister.
Below is a photo of the entire Bonifield family. The Reverend Bonifield went on to serve as a missionary to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, until it was necessary for him to return home in the summer of 2006 for cancer treatment. He passed away in March 2011 at 83 years of age.
After the Bonifields sold and moved out, locally owned independent pharmacies, nationwide, started a downward spiral. The days of the old-fashioned mom and pop drug store, complete with a soda fountain were gone forever in Woodland Park.
A few others operated drug stores here in Woodland, such as Jim Reed who bought the old Bonifield pharmacy, and Sam Jones who bought it from Reed, but then moved to other, higher traffic locations in town.
The closest thing that resembled the Bonifields' drug store and also the longest tenure for a pharmacy was George and Judy Drake. From 1983 until 2008 they ran Drake's Pharmacy and Ben Franklin department store in Gold Hill South. But when Walgreens opened in late 2005, that made it extremely tough on Drake.
Moreso, when the “new” Walmart in Woodland Park opened in 2007, that sealed the fate of Drake's and they closed.
Then what I believe was the last try at an independent, locally owned pharmacy was the effort by Dave and Virginia Kitley. Kitley’s started out as one of the first businesses in Gold Hill Square (North). Gold Hill opened in the spring of 1977 and the pharmacy was on the east end of the shopping center. He later constructed the large building on the corner of West Street and Midland Ave. and moved his pharmacy business there. That is the Woodland Professional Building today.
The photo below shows longtime “soda jerk” Annie Hathaway behind the soda fountain counter, serving up delicious treats. Notice the prices above her: Ice cream Soda, 29 cents, malts, 34 cents, shakes, 24 and 29 cents, and a 54-cent banana split with a deluxe hamburger for 49 cents!
My standard order was a fountain coke with an order of French fries that set me back 25 cents and did not include the one penny sales tax.
The soda fountain in Woodland Park was where laughter could be heard after school, where couples, both young and old, shared a malt with two straws.
Where you could order a Cherry Coke, a flavored phosphate, or a “Black Cow,” which was vanilla ice cream, root beer (or sometimes cola), and chocolate syrup, and, by the way, originated in Cripple Creek in 1893.
In closing, I would just like to say that the Woodland Pharmacy was the heart of this town for many years, a full blown “institution”. It was a gathering place for business meetings, after church lunches and for hundreds of teenagers for many years. To me, it is sad that the bustling community drug store and soda fountain was replaced by the likes of McDonalds', Burger King, Walmart and Walgreens.
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