Longtime Oak Bay residents will remember when Davenport’s Pharmacy on Oak Bay Avenue closed in 1985. For 40 years, “Davenport’s” was a household name and the pharmacy a family staple, its usage stretching back to 1924 when veterinary pharmacist Dr. Charles Hudson moved into the building.
Despite two location hops on the avenue and a change of hands from father Harold Davenport to son H. Larry Davenport, the pharmacy remained frequented by Oak Bay residents until its closure in 1985 – which, duly, received plenty of public resistance.
On August 18 this year, second owner and third generation Oak Bay resident Larry Davenport will turn 90 years old. Recognizing the milestone birthday, Larry reflects on the days of Davenport’s Pharmacy on Oak Bay Avenue, and how the Oak Bay community has transformed over the years.
The pharmacy journey started near the end of Charles Hudson’s career in 1945, Larry remembers. At the time, Hudson was overdue for retirement, ducking behind his counter when customers came in the door. Harold Davenport recognized Hudson’s readiness to move on, and soon after bought the pharmacy off him. This marked the start of the Davenport era.
In the beginning, Larry says he was only a senior high school student “filling shelves and dusting” for his father’s business. This was shortly after the second world war had ended, and Larry says Oak Bay was different back then.
“When we were living on Dufferin when I was a kid, there were hardly any houses around at all. My dad would have his coffee and see the streetcar go up [to the Uplands], and he’d finished his coffee and run down and catch the streetcar coming back on his way to work,” Larry remembered. “Between Dunlevy and Lansdowne, it was all bush.”
Larry and his brothers Bruce and Richard built forts in the forest and bush-whacked their way to Willows Beach, where they deployed “rickety old rafts” in the summertime. Skylarks still populated the area, the English bird since driven out by development.
Larry headed to the University of British Columbia to follow in his father’s footsteps and study pharmacy after his high school graduation in 1945. By the time he returned in 1953, his father was ready to hand the reins over to him. Larry partnered with a high school and UBC friend, Ross Noel, and the two managed the business for the next 32 years at both locations on Oak Bay Avenue, often working twelve hour days and seven day weeks. They employed a boy named Rodney as their deliverer, who rode prescriptions around Oak Bay on bicycle.
At that time, pharmacies had yet to be fully commercialized. Davenport’s Pharmacy at 2012 Oak Bay Avenue offered only prescriptions, Epsom salts by the tub and soap between sheets of paper, which was cut to size and sold by Larry’s mother, Patricia, at the till. Later on, Larry convinced his father to edge in the direction of big pharmacies such as Shoppers and London Drugs by introducing greeting cards and over-the-counter stockings. They hired their second deliverer, Grieves Moving and Storage, to carry prescriptions by motorbike sidecar.
As family businesses go, Larry’s daughter Ann Davenport soon became invested in the pharmacy. She washed and prepared prescription bottles for reuse at the store’s second location, 2020 Oak Bay Avenue. “The plastic wasn’t invented yet, so you reused the bottles,” Ann said. “You had to soak the labels and wash the contents.” Ann said the Davenport Pharmacy always had “a really nice atmosphere.” Her brother David and sister Kathryn made deliveries while she worked in the store.
Over the years, Larry served plenty of his own high school peers and maintained a close-knit relationship with the community. Marie Askey from Larry’s Oak Bay High graduate class and Ada Ogalvie worked alongside him at the pharmacy, and one particularly devoted customer, Ian Ross, expressed his gratitude to Larry and partner Ross Noel with a lifetime pass to The Butchart Gardens in 1985.
Ann said, “That’s how small Oak Bay was. You went to the businesses run by the people you went to school with, you grew up with.”
Despite several moves through Vancouver and Kamloops during his father’s time in the war, Larry agrees. Save those few early high school years away, he was born and raised in Oak Bay, and says about Davenport’s Pharmacy, “Most of my customers were more friends than customers.”
This August, as with every other birthday, Larry celebrates his 90th at The Gardens.
editor@oakbaynews.com
