Dafler’s Pharmacy was a family-owned drugstore in East Dayton with a soda fountain, candy counter and clerks who knew your name.

When Dafler Pharmacy was opened by Weden E. “Doc” Dafler in 1932, trolley cars ran out East Third Street and Daytonians were fighting to survive the Depression. It survived to become Dayton’s last drug store soda fountain until it closed in 1995.

While remembering the pharmacy, we need your help. Click here to jump to a form at the bottom of this page and let us know what other businesses you miss from the Dayton area, so we can feature them in the future.

» PHOTOS: Remembering Dafler’s Pharmacy and its famous soda fountain in Dayton

Dafler grew up on a farm near Farmersville. His father didn’t want him to leave the farm, but he wanted to be a pharmacist. He saved up enough money for one year of college and went to Indiana University to study. When he ran out of money, he went back to the farm until he saved up enough to finish school.

The original 1932 store was located at 1435 E. Third St., on the corner opposite the more well-known site at 1500 E. Third St. where the pharmacy moved in 1937.

The location at 1500 E. Third St. is now a Gordon’s Jewelry and Loan business.

Doc’s son, Duane Dafler, was born in 1932, the same year the pharmacy opened. Duane was practically raised at the store, and his first job was stock boy and chief duster. He took over management in 1982 and took over ownership when his father died in 1988.

In a 1992 Dayton Daily News story, Duane Dafler said, “We are the last of a vanishing breed. We are the only old-time drug store left in the city of Dayton with a working soda fountain. It quite honestly is unique. Adds to the charm of the place. Besides that, as my late father once said, someone has to keep the tradition alive.”

The store was described by a Dayton Daily News writer as “a low-slung yellow brick building with antique drug-mixing devices in the window. A glass-topped candy counter was just inside the front door. The wall behind the Formica soda fountain counter is decorated with antique mirrors and a vintage Coca-Cola sign.”

House specialty is created

Dafler’s had food service in the store since its beginnings. It started with sandwiches such as tuna salad, egg salad, and ham. Originally, Doc’s wife, Dorothy, made the sandwiches at home, and Doc brought them in to sell. Dorothy also made chili at home and carried it to the drug store in big kettles in the back seat of their Chevy. And using a secret recipe, they made batch after batch of syrup for nectar sodas, the house specialty.

A kitchen was added in 1951, but the menu was still mostly chili and cold sandwiches.

Dafler recalled in a 1983 Dayton Daily News article a time when they served a plate lunch (“roast beef one day, maybe spaghetti the next”) to factory workers in the area.

Their malts and shakes were better than others, according to Dafler, because he always insisted on using real Gem City brand ice cream instead of soft-serve.

A 1990 news article said that the pharmacy filled an average of 150 prescriptions a day. Customers were offered a free Coke or coffee while they waited for the prescriptions to be filled.

Duane Dafler’s recipe for his tangy nectar soda is one of Dayton’s best-kept secrets. Dafler vowed to pass the recipe along to his grandchildren in his will.

The pharmacy closed in December of 1995. Dafler blamed the closure on low-price contracts negotiated by drug companies with high-volume mail-order prescription retailers and health care providers.

Dafler, then 63, took a job at Rite Aid following the closure of his independent pharmacy. In a 1996 Dayton Daily News article, Dafler talked about possibly selling or auctioning off his old soda fountain.

Dafler died in 2020 at the age of 88.