Friedenwald's Medicinal Liquor Establishment: The Ladies' Wine & Liquor Store

There is just so much to unpack with this advertisement from the Baltimore Sun, circa 1904. 

The Friedenwald family arrived in Baltimore in the 1860's and many of them were physicians. At one point, there were five brothers/cousins who were physicians. They were all very involved with MedChi, including Aaron, Edgar and Harry, whose portraits we own, and again Harry, who was President. 

There were also pharmacists in the family, and they owned a pharmacy on Park Avenue in Bolton Hill. Some members of the family lived on Eutaw Place, just a few blocks away.

Back to the liquor ad! It is interesting that there's a liquor store just for the ladies. In some of their other ads, they mention that they have "lady clerks" at their stores to help their "lady patrons."  And their gin is for all of your female complaints! It is also funny that their out of town packages are packed in plain cases. I guess that is the brown paper paper packages, tied up with string.

I also stumbled across a half-page ad from the Baltimore Sun, just before Christmas of 1909. 

There is a whole lot going on in this ad, which is really about 20+ ads in one! Here are some of the details from this, and another ad:

They used the word "jayaitcheff" in a number of their ads, and if you sound it out, it's J H F for J.H. Friedenwald.

This is quite the contraption, and I wonder if they ever received the patent for it.

Friedenwald's seems to be a full service store, with their own rye whiskey and their own cough drops.

And if you want to have a really fun picnic, then just fill your basket with booze. And these are quart bottles, not miniatures.

It's such fun to look at the old advertisements and see what was on offer, and how little it cost! When I went to check the address, there was still a liquor store in the location,

although it looks quite a bit more down-market than Friedenwald's.

P.S. This isn't an April Fool's joke. The store actually existed.