"Anna Louise James"

The daughter of a Virginia plantation slave who escaped to

Connecticut,she grew up in Old Saybrook Dedicating her early life to education,she became in 1908,the first African American woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in New York.Anna operated a drugstore in Hartford until 1911,when she went to work for her brother-in-law at his pharmacy,making her the first female African American pharmacist in the state.The Pharmacy where Anna worked started out as a general store for the Humphrey Pratt Tavern in 1790.The store moved to its current location at the corner of Pennsylvania Lane in 1877,where it became Lane Pharmacy.Peter Lane,one of only two African Americans pharmacists in early Connecticut,added a soda fountain to his establishment in 1896.When Peter got called away to fight in World War I,he left the pharmacy in the care of Anna.In 1917,she took over the operations and renamed her business James Pharmacy.Anna, known to local residents as "Miss James,"  operated the business until 1967.After her retirement she kept resident in an apartment in the back of the pharmacy until her death.The store itself remained vacant from 1967 until 1980,when it was renovated and reopened in 1984.The building has changed owners several times over the years,the former pharmacy,primarily an ice cream shop,retain much of the character Anna instilled in it.In 1994,the James Pharmacy received a listing on the National