Hepps Pharmacy, 406 Dixon St., c. 1922

Interior of Samuel W. Hepps’ pharmacy at 406 Dixon St., c. 1930. It was converted into a pharmacy from the saloon Bernhardt Hepps, his father, ran.

Bernhardt at the counter of his son’s pharmacy, c. 1938. (Unfortunately I cannot figure out who has the original of this photograph, so I can only post the xerox from a family history book my cousin distributed in 1991.)

Jacob (Chick) Hepps’ beer distributorship at 709 1/2 E. 8th Ave in Homestead (date unknown). This is where Chick began in partnership with a man named Holleran. The entire sidewalk and up to a third of the street, sometimes for most of the block, was piled with beer, as you can make out on the left side of this picture.

Jacob Hepps’ Munhall Distributing Company at 106 Larkspur St., at the top of the hill in Munhall, PA (date unknown). It was a really long hill. One day the brakes on the delivery truck gave out when my father, then a child, and the driver, Solomon Isaac Orlando Fluellen, were making deliveries. The truck coasted down the hill for what seemed like twenty minutes, with my father arguing that they should jump out of the truck, and Solly insisting that they could not. They rode it down across a main highway and across a lot of railroad tracks with beer cases flying in every direction ’til they hit a parked railroad train and experienced no injuries whatsoever (other than the total destruction of the beer). My father also remembers armed robbers accosting him, his father, and others in the office at the end of the workday.

Jacob Hepps’ Mon Valley Beer Distributing Company in West Homestead on a local highway (date unknown). My father recalls that at this location they did so much business that as a child at the end of the day when he was too tired to work, he sat outside on a chair and waved the people away.