Waterbury’s at 1036 Canal St., on April 4, 1955. On the corner of Rampart St., store no. 2 was also open 24 hrs a day, ensuring that Waterbury’s was the busiest druggist in New Orleans. Waterbury’s is remembered fondly by many people who worked and played downtown, and also memorialized in Benny Grunch song “Ain’t Dere No More.”
Carl C. Waterbury opened a drug store on the uptown corner of Canal and Camp streets in early 1930, calling it Waterbury’s. One of his first hires was pharmacist and store manager Avit W. Cancienne, who bought the store within the year.
Cancienne proved to be a capable businessman through his combination of merchandising skills, customer service, strong work ethic, and pharmaceutical acumen. Waterbury’s also was open 24 hours a day and offered free motorcycle delivery to anywhere in the city, which kept them busy day and night.
In 1935, Cancienne opened a new location at 1036 Canal St. Two years later, a third store was opened uptown at the corner of Dryades and Euterpe. Cancienne had visited over 500 drug stores around the country to custom design his newest and largest store at 1632 Dryades. It featured a prescription room with glass walls to invite public view and a soda fountain area that would attract the entire neighborhood in a space that was called one of the most modern drug stores in the nation.
In the mid-1950s, change happened quickly. The Canal and Rampart location lost its lease and had to close. Hopes for additional stores were put on hold for a few years when Avit Cancienne died in 1955. His nephew Jimmie Ford, who started at Waterbury’s as a drug clerk in 1941 when he was 17, took over ownership of the business. And two years later in 1957, Ford opened a location in Lakeview on Harrison Ave.
The Lakeview location was bought out by Rexall in 1961, and the Dryades location closed soon after that. The original location on Canal and Camp, however, continued to thrive.
In the late 1970s, Sheraton Hotels started buying the property around the original Waterbury’s at Canal and Camp, clearing lots to build a brand new hotel, with only a long-standing lease to keep Waterbury’s safe. Eventually selling the last couple of years of their lease to Sheraton, Waterbury’s closed for good in 1984. Sheraton built a small conference center on the site that still honors the legendary store with their Waterbury Ballroom.
