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Witmer Drugs, 145-149 S. Hwy 101 and Detached Garage of Witmer Residence and Drug Store, 150 S. Acacia

Just north of the original Estes house was a drug store, but it didn’t have a pharmacist. Witmer’s Sandwiches, Fountain and Sundries was originally a one-story building but a second story was added and Mr. and Mrs. Witmer lived upstairs above their store. They had a soda fountain the kids really loved. They sold patent medicines, shoe pads, adhesive tape, iodine, ointments – anything that came in a box.

The Witmer’s detached garage was to the west of the drug store and residence at 150 S. Acacia.  Since 1983-84, the Witmer’s detached garage housed a down-home breakfast and lunch spot run by Ms. Jan Brown called the Hideaway Cafe. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 ended the Cafe’s run in the former garage.

1928 view of Hwy. 101

(Photo courtesy of the San Diego Historical Society)

A view looking north on 101.  In the foreground is Witmer’s Sandwiches, Fountain and Sundries.

[sources:  Early Solana Beach, Recollections by George C. Wilkens & Robert “Chuckles” Hernandez as told to Jim Nelson, 2002 and Solana Beach, Forty Years of Progress, 1922-1962, April, 1962.]