This is the site of W.E. Lynch & Company, a drug store form 1877 until 1969. The business was founded by William Edward Lynch (1851-1896), and continued by his wife, Kate Holstein Lynch (1854-1923), and son, W. Charlton Lynch (1882-1924) for nearly a century.
William Edward Lynch had started his business career in partnership with A.A. Clisby as early as 1872, but went out on his own in 1877. His store, like many drug stores of that age, sold groceries as well. The Lynch building was burned in the fire of 1881, but was rebuilt as two stores immediately thereafter. It again burned n the fire of 1884, and was again rebuilt.
After Dr. W.E. Lynch's death in 1896, Mrs. Lynch continued the business until her son, Dr. William Charlton Lynch, a graduate of the University of Maryland pharmacy school, was able to return and take over the business early in the 20th century. In 1920 the store again burned. Following the fire, the Lynch family built the metal building which now houses the Old Edgefield Pottery as temporary quarters until they could rebuild the building. At the same time they sold half of their frontage on the square to the People's Bank which built the adjoining building. Dr. Lynch continued to operate W.E. Lynch & Co. until his eighty-seventh year when he retired.
In 1974, following Dr. Lynch's death, the building was purchased by Maurice "Bully" Rubenstein (1910-1992) who moved his family's dry goods business here. In 1987, the building was purchased by the Edgefield Civic League under the leadership of Mrs. Nancy Crocket Mims, and has been used to house the expansion of the Tompkins Library from the adjoining building.
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