From The Essex to The James Pharmacy

Created by Chef Colt Taylor, owner and executive chef of The Essex in Old Saybrook, The James Pharmacy reflects a lifelong passion for hospitality, craftsmanship, and exceptional ingredients.

Inspired by old butcher shops, general stores, Japanese culinary culture, and the rhythm of shoreline living, The James Pharmacy blends the warmth of tradition with a chef-driven approach to food and cooking.

It is designed not only as a shop, but as a neighborhood resource — a place to discover ingredients, learn, gather, and return to again and again.

A Building with History

Since 1790

Long before it became a pharmacy, The James Pharmacy began as a small general store built in 1790, serving travelers, neighbors, and the nearby Humphrey Pratt Tavern, one of Old Saybrook’s most historic stagecoach stops. Located beside the tavern near the corner of Main Street and the Old Boston Post Road, the store supplied everyday provisions to locals and those traveling the route between Boston and New York.

In those early years, the building functioned much as we hope it will again: a place for daily ritual — provisions, conversation, sandwiches, necessities, and community. The small general store sat beside the Humphrey Pratt House and tavern, helping serve a growing shoreline village.

In 1824, local history tells us that Marquis de Lafayette, Revolutionary War hero and friend of George Washington, stopped here while revisiting America on his celebrated return tour. What he purchased remains uncertain — depending on who tells the story, perhaps gloves, stockings, or saddle soap — but the story endured long enough to become part of the building’s identity.

Then, in 1877, the building began an unlikely second chapter.

Rather than disappear, the original general store was physically moved down Main Street by a team of oxen to its present home at the corner of Pennywise Lane, where it still stands today.

In 1895, pharmacist Peter C. Lane and his wife Bertha James Lane rented the building and established what became Old Saybrook’s first pharmacy. Peter Lane — one of Connecticut’s earliest Black pharmacists — later added a soda fountain in 1896, transforming the shop into a gathering place for generations of shoreline families.

The pharmacy would later become nationally significant through Anna Louise James, Connecticut’s first African-American woman pharmacist, who operated the business for decades, and through her niece, celebrated novelist Ann Petry, who grew up here and went on to become one of America’s most important literary voices.

Today, we are honored to continue the story.

While the building’s purpose evolves once again, our intention remains deeply connected to its roots: to create a neighborhood place built around quality, hospitality, everyday ritual, and gathering — a modern general store grounded in history.