Zook's Pharmacy (Santa Fe, N.M.)

John Noah Zook (1875-1950) was born in Wakefield, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1875. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1895. Before moving to Santa Fe in 1901, Zook worked in New York City and in Pueblo, Colorado. In Santa Fe he became a prescription clerk at Alphonse C. Ireland's Pharmacy and in 1906, Zook and James R. Caruthers purchased Ireland's (later Capital) Pharmacy. Two years later, Zook resigned as part owner and manger to open his own apothacary shop. In 1913, Zook and Jack Colins joined as partners to purchase Adolph Fischer's Drug Store to expand into larger facilities at 56 East San Francisco Street. There the business remained into the 1990s having undergone two more changes of ownership.

In 1906, John Zook and Zelma Brown, a draughtsman in the surveyor-general's office, were married in Santa Fe. They had one child, Katherine, in 1915. After John Zook died in 1950, Zelma and Katherine continued to operate the family pharmacy until 1965. From 1965 until his death in 1968, Lyman W. Quick owned and operated Zook's Pharmacy and in 1969 Timothy R. Elsbrock purchased and operated Zook's. Zook's Pharmacy was the oldest pharmacy in continuous operation in New Mexico. It closed in 1983.

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