You May Be Surprised That Walgreens Was in Maine 100 Years Ago

I am a bit of a history buff when it comes to the State of Maine, but I stumbled across something on eBay that I had no idea was in downtown Portland at one time.

Walgreens Comes to Maine

In 2007, Walgreens Pharmacy expanded into Maine, opening its first store in the state on Route 302 in Windham. According to Walgreens' website, they now operate 69 stores in the state of Maine. That's quite a presence. Walgreens is the second-largest pharmacy behind CVS.

However, there was a time before Walgreens' expansion into Maine when there was only one Walgreens, and it was in Maine's largest city.

Walgreen Drugs

Check out this postcard that is for sale by ebay seller Vintage Postcard Memories:

You'll notice that Congress Square in Portland is, for the most part, unchanged. Nearly every building you see here is still standing. The time and temp building is off in the distance, but this was before there was a time and temp sign on the roof.

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The only building I can see gone in this picture is on the left at the corner of Congress and High Streets. Here's a closer look at what was there.

There's Walgreen Drugs, back in the era when drug stores had soda fountains and lunch counters. There's no date given on this postcard, but with the name "Walgreen Drugs" on the sign, that puts it sometime between 1901 and 1948, when they changed their name to "Walgreen's," later dropping the apostrophe.

Walgreen Drugs Former Location Today

Walgreen Drugs is long gone now, but the space was later converted into Congress Square Park in 1982.