Many businesses peak briefly and fade away. Not Seifert’s Pharmacy, located on the corner of 68th Street and Park Avenue – or rather, on Seifert’s Way, the new street name bestowed by Mayor Wayne Zitt and the Town Council on Saturday, Mar. 16, 2024.

In business since 1904 – when Teddy Roosevelt was president and only a few months after the Wright Brothers flew the first powered aircraft at Kitty Hawk – at what was then listed as 21 Park Avenue in Guttenberg, the store was registered under the name of owner/pharmacist Eric Seifert in 1909. Nicholas Picca came to work there on a temporary basis after his honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1947 and Seifert liked him so much he asked Picca to stay, making him a partner a few years later.

When Seifert died in 1967, Picca purchased the business, keeping the Seifert name out of respect. Over the years Picca’s wife Genevieve worked there as a part-time pharmacist, along with sons Robert and William beginning in 1968.

Flashforward to 2024 and Robert has been the pharmacist now for 46 years. Entering the shop is like stepping back in time, into a corner drugstore out of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” complete with antique wooden shelves and display cases, old tin walls and high ceilings, a spinner rack filled with coloring books and crossword puzzles, even a weight scale that tells your future.

Behind the counter stretches a deep warren of storage rooms, nooks, and crannies overflowing with jars of traditional medicines and homeopathic remedies, along with personal memorabilia and curios collected over the years, including scale models of the Titanic, the Batmobile, and the starship Enterprise.

Best of all, the business has retained that small-town feel, where the pharmacist is your neighbor, your friend, someone to offer trusted medical advice. And yes, they dispense thoroughly modern prescriptions, not arcane concoctions from dusty decanters. Residents swear by Seifert’s and wouldn’t dream of abandoning them for some cold, impersonal chain drugstore.

As noted on the plaque presented by the mayor to the Picca family, the street corner was renamed Seifert’s Way “in recognition of the longstanding service, commitment, and dedication the Seifert and Picca families have shown to the residents, families, and visitors of the Town of Guttenberg.”

Joining the mayor at the presentation were Council Members Richard Delafuente, Monica Fundora, John Habermann, and William Hokien, Town Administrator Cosmo Cirillo, and a huge crowd of local residents, customers, friends, family, former employees, and other well-wishers, including 105-year-old neighbor Rose Gunther.

Additional Photos in Online Gallery