At the turn of the 20th century, Nashua – population roughly 23,000 – boasted 15 pharmacies, half of them on Main Street, none farther than a two-block walk east or west.

Alternately called apothecaries, drugstores or drug companies, most were family-owned and operated, often for generations.

And they had at least one thing in common: Each was independently owned.

Today, in a Nashua four times that size, only three independent, or “unchained,” pharmacies – Rice’s, Wingate’s and Medicine World – remain. But come next week, that drops to just two when Rice’s, the oldest pharmacy not only in Nashua but in the state, as well, shutters its landmark shop adjacent to the Main Street Bridge after a remarkable 142 years.

While owner Roger Hebert and his employees are continuing on in the pharmacy business, the name Rice’s – for longtime owner Herbert E. Rice – is now relegated to the history books.

While doctors and “chemists” – the original apothecarists and pharmacists – began compounding drugs and putting up remedies such as dysentery syrup, balsam of life, gum myrrh, nerve powders, slippery elm and wine bitters as far back as Revolutionary War times, the first true pharmacies and apothecaries didn’t come along until the early 1800s.

Nashua’s first drugstores are believed to have popped up in the 1820s and early ’30s in Nashua Village, a so-called section of Old Dunstable up until the city was incorporated as Nashua in 1836.

The first drugstore mentioned by name is the Nashua Medicine Store, which, according to “The Nashua Experience,” always had an ample selection of German leeches on hand.

Here is a time line of highlights in Rice’s and other Nashua pharmacies’ history:

• 1820s – City’s first apothecaries opens, mostly to supply physicians with herbal and compounded cures.

• 1868 – Present-day Rice’s Pharmacy is founded at 55 Main St. as Blanchard & Currier by physician/surgeon George W. Currier and druggist Willis H. Blanchard.

• 1892 – Nashua Drug Co., a trade cooperative, is formed; Blanchard and Currier buy first five shares for $10 each.

• 1900 – Frank Homer Wingate opens Wingate’s Pharmacy at 129 Main St. Fourth-generation owner Gary Wingate operates the business at the same address today.

• Early 1900s – Nashua lists 15 apothecaries or drugstores, all independent.

• 1910 – Pharmacist Herbert E. Rice, formerly employed by Hallisey’s Drug Store and Underhill Drug Co., buys Blanchard & Currier.

• Dec. 11, 1924 – Original Rice’s Pharmacy building burns with several others in the huge Main Street Bridge fire.

• 1927 – The present-day Riverside Building is constructed. Rice’s address becomes 59 Main St.

• 1947 – Lawyer Gerald Cobleigh and businessman Abraham Slawsby buy Riverside Building.

• 1950 – Herbert Rice retires; Rice’s is bought by Ray Lavallee, who removes marble soda fountain.

• 1952 – Eleven independent pharmacies are operating in Nashua.

• 1957 – Nashua native, pharmacist and apothecarist Brad Whitney opens Whitney Pharmacy at Main and Kinsley streets.

• 1957 – Jim Hebert, newly graduated from pharmaceutical school, begins work at Rice’s.

• 1968 – Nine independent pharmacies are operating in Nashua.

• 1982 – Pharmacist Bob Lolley opens Medicine World at 262 Main Dunstable Road.

• 1983 – Peter Supry opens Peter’s Pharmacy at the former Town & Country Pharmacy, 495 Amherst St.

• 1985 – Eight pharmacies (some with multiple locations) are operating in Nashua. Six are independently owned.

• 1986 – Chris Stone buys Peter’s Pharmacy from Supry.

• 1995 – Jim Hebert’s son, Roger, takes over Rice’s.

• 2000 – Whitney Pharmacy closes after more than 40 years.

• December 2008 – Stone sells the business to Target and closes, leaving three independent pharmacies in Nashua.

• October 2010 – Rice’s owner Roger Hebert enters agreement to operate the Osco pharmacy in Shaw’s Supermarket, 300 Main St. Rice’s Pharmacy closes after 142 years on the Main Street Bridge.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 31, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.