Beginning in 1814, brothers John, Philip, and Reuben Alexander opened the J.P.R. Store, a general store that sold drugs for people and animals along with goods ranging from planks to cuff buttons. Throughout the 19th century, the Alexander family owned and operated the business, which devoted part of its inventory to medicinals rather than existing as a separate pharmacy or apothecary. In 1906, W.F. Alexander sold the controlling interest to Samuel Smith and his son John Peyton Smith, and the business evolved from a general store that sold drugs as a sideline into a drugstore that sold sundries as a sideline. After attending pharmacy school for one year, John Peyton became a registered pharmacist, bringing the business to full maturity as a pharmacy. Randolph N. Smith later followed his father and, after graduating from Louisville College of Pharmacy, became actively involved in 1939. Today the pharmacy is operated by Smith's daughter Laura Lee and her husband Doug Butler, a registered pharmacist, and it offers a soda fountain and prescription delivery.