The American Pharmacists Association (APhA, 1852-) - The Oldest Professional Society of Pharmacists in the United States

[DonRocks]

On 7/21/2016 at 3:02 PM, Biotech said:

One point of clarification. We (don't know why I say "we" as I'm not a pharmacist) are actually the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP). The American pharmacists Association (APhA) is downtown renting space in a State Department Building. We're very different associations (some may say friendly rivals). ASHP has been a fixture in Bethesda for decades  - even before we bought the building at 7272 we had rented space on Montgomery, I think. 

Food Wine & Co was the default restaurant for ASHP to hold business lunches at. I suspect Q will be the same. 

A couple points way off-topic before hopefully circling back to the bamboo fish et al ...

How can the American Phamacists Association rent that building on Constitution Avenue? (I suppose I could take one look at our medical landscape and answer that question on my own.) I suspect most people don't know which building it is, but it's one of the most extraordinary little hideaways on the north side of Constitution Avenue.

There is precedent for a real restaurant occupying this side of East-West Highway with Old Homestead Steakhouse (even though it was technically on Wisconsin Avenue, it may as well have been on East-West Highway).

[Simul Parikh]

Ha! You're exactly right. Do you know how much in dues they collect? These organizations are ridiculous... 300,000 pharmacists and if even 20% are members, probably $20 million in dues annually.

I wonder if this yooge restaurant is gonna be any good. 

[TSchaad]

10 hours ago, DonRocks said:

How can the American Phamacists Association rent that building on Constitution Avenue? (I suppose I could take one look at our medical landscape and answer that question on my own.) I suspect most people don't know which building it is, but it's one of the most extraordinary little hideaways on the north side of Constitution Avenue.

Don,

The current building was built as a signifigant expansion of the original American Pharmacists Association building, which had been there forever. The GSA and State cut some kind of a deal to essentially build a new Annex for the State Department on the site that incorporated the original building (the marble facade facing Constitution Avenue). If the American Pharmacists Association owned the property origionally, the deal probably resulted in a modernized shared space with State. They might even be getting an annual payment from the government for the use of the property.

TSchaad

[The Hersch]

The marble-faced building at the northeast corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street was designed by the very important architect John Russell Pope (who designed the Jefferson Memorial, the west building of the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and the ineffable Masonic Scottish Rite Temple at 16th and S. NW) and dedicated in 1934. It stands now, as it stood then, on land owned by the pharmacists' association, known variously over the years as the American Pharmaceutical Association and (currently) the American Pharmacists Association, with the building itself sometimes known (officially, I believe, even now) as the American Institution of Pharmacy. In the 1950s, with a land-swap deal with the GSA and State Department, the pharmacists acquired a parcel of land immediately behind the Pope structure (which has always looked like a mausoleum to me) and built an annex office building on it. In the early 2000s, I believe with another land-swap with the GSA and State Department, the pharmacists acquired an additional parcel that extended their property all the way to C St., when they proceeded to demolish the 1950s annex and build the new annex that you see today. For several years beginning in 2006, I occupied an office that overlooked the intersection of 21st and C, from the northeast. I had a view of parts of Rosslyn originally, but as the new building took shape, I lost that view, although Rosslyn isn't that much to look at anyway. Sadly, I never did have any view of the river. At any rate, as I understand it, all of the land occupied by the pharmacists is owned by them, and they rent part of their new annex to the State Department. It is said that theirs is the only privately-held property on the Mall, although this causes me to wonder who owns the National Academy of Sciences building and its land, next door. Although created by act of Congress during the Civil War, the NAS is a private non-profit.

You can read about the history of the APhA and its DC facility here.