From the time that I first noticed it.... at least 60 years ago... I've been fascinated with the painted sign on the back side of a downtown Corpus Christi building.
"Bingham's Drug Store" it says.
It's painted on the back of the Lovenskiold Building at the corner of Mesquite and Peoples.
Few people in Corpus know that this plain Jane looking building is the oldest in downtown (the oldest building in the CITY is Centennial House on the Bluff, built in 1849). The Lovenskiold Building was erected in 1891 and is the only known cast iron building in the city.
In the early 1900’s, Mr. Robert H. Bingham opened a drug store in the building. Bingham was born in Mississippi in 1861 and came to Corpus Christi in 1887. Here he met and married Charlotte Scott, a niece of Charlotte Sidbury.
Bingham operated his store into the mid 1920’s.
He would pass away in 1935 and his wife in 1952. Both are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Over the more than 100 years since the painted sign went up on the building it has gradually faded with time.
I was most grateful in 2005 to the current owner of the building for not painting over the sign.
For now, it remains a small reminder of Corpus Christi’s distant past.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.
