115 East Main Street/Harben's Drug Store Building

This brick structure stands on the site of an earlier wood frame building, which was used as a drugstore, first by Dr. W. E. Rucker and then by the Harben family, who caused the present brick structure to be built in 1911. Dr. Rucker bought this lot on March 4, 1898 from the Houston & Texas Central Railway. Druggist and newspaper publisher Sam Harben purchased it from Rucker in December 1901. This building was occupied by Harben’s Drugstore, a Richardson institution, from 1911, when it was built, until October 1955, when James B. Nevins bought it and renamed the business “City Drug.” In October 1956, Nevins was bought out by John S. Leever. From 1901 to 1924, The Richardson Echo was printed in a rear room. Dr. Rucker and then Dr. Raymond P. Harbin had a medical office in a rear room. In the 1920s, Dr. W. N. Manning had his office here. In 1901, when the Richardson Telephone company was formed, Sam Harben, one of the principals, allowed the telephone exchange to operate in a rear room. Like a lot of the buildings on this block, this structure has also housed a wide variety of commerical enterprises. Currently, combined with the building next door, it is being operated as a bar.