Your neighborhood pharmacy

When it comes to commercial institutions in Visitacion Valley, none is more storied than the Visitacion Valley Pharmacy at 100 Leland Avenue. With downtown Visitacion Valley undergoing tremendous changes via the Leland Avenue Streetscape Improvement Project, construction of a new branch library, and the redevelopment of the old Schlage Lock site, it is fascinating to step back and examine how much the community has changed. As the Visitacion Valley History Project (VVHP) reveals, the storefront has seen it all in the past 150 years. The following excerpt is taken from San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley (Images of America Series) book, available locally at Joe Leland Coffee Shop – 28 Leland Avenue for the winter bargain price of $15.00.

“In the mid-1860’s the Rossi family settled in Visitacion Valley and established large vegetable gardens which they worked by hand. Virginio Rossi went on to own the Visitacion Valley Pharmacy on Leland Avenue until 1970, when his daughter took over. Oral historian Mary Leotta Schwartz recalled that when she was a young girl the “library” was a single shelf unit about three feet wide and five or six shelves high, located in Jennings’ store at Leland and Alpha, which later was Rossi’s pharmacy. “There were no cards or due dates,” she remembered. “People simply borrowed books and returned them to the shelf.” Edie Epps remembers going to the pharmacy with her mother when she was a little girl. The mezzanine above the store was hung with old photos of Visitacion Valley and some deer and elk heads. Behind the counter was a line of big jars filled with candy, root beer barrels, horehound drops, hot cinnamon drops and others and it was a great treat to pick out twenty-five cents’ worth.”

Today, Pharmacist Oliver Lee and his friendly, knowledgeable staff are dedicated to treating all customers as family. Aside from filling vital prescriptions, the Visitacion Valley Pharmacy offers an array of household health and beauty products including; vitamins, cosmetics, cough and cold medicine, band aids and cough drops just to name a few. They also have a large selection of greeting cards, stationery and they sell monthly SF Muni Monthly passes. Drop by, say hello and of course shop local.