Walton and Smoot Drug Store

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Sometime in the 1880s Lin Irwin's Drug Store opened on the first floor of the Irwin Opera House located at the corner of Main and Court Street in Woodstock.

In 1906 Clyde E. Walton and Dr. James H. Smoot purchased the drug store and changed the name to Walton and Smoot. It became one of the town's two major drug stores, the other being Schmitts two buildings down.

Besides creating and providing medicine, Walton and Smoot was, and still is, a multipurpose store. It served food, sold a wide array of goods, and for a long period operated a bar and sold beer. An early postcard showing the interior had the hand written notation "Beefstew-Bar-Cold Beer added before it was sent.

Soon after purchasing the business, Walton and Smoot moved the drug store to the Magruder Building which was located on North Main Street at the corner of Court Square.

In 1935 H.A. Moore and George Clower purchased the business from Dr. Smoot who had previously become the sole owner of the drug store. They continued to operate it under the Walton and Smoot name.
Milson S. French purchased George Clower’s share of the business in July of 1952. French, a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, later became sole owner of the store.

He moved the drug store moved to its current home, the former site of the Geary and Woodstock Hotels, in 1968 when the Magruder Building was demolished to make way for a new brick office building. A fire heavily damaged the building in 1975 but the store reopened.

It operated until 2019. The building stands vacant as of 2023.