Ann Lane Petry grew up in the James Pharmacy, together with two sisters, a pharmacist father and hairdresser mother. She went on to publish several best-selling novels and one children’s book The Drugstore Cat which nods to her childhood here.
THIS ROOM'S AMENITIES:
Black-and-white houndstooth chair, reminiscent of the checkerboard floor in the original soda counter
Stearns and Foster handmade mattress
Gas fireplace
Oversized shower in sparkling subway tile
Overdyed rug in cobalt blue
ABOUT ANN PETRY (1908–1997):
Peter Lane and his wife Bertha moved to Old Saybrook in 1898 and distinguished themselves in the tiny community of only 1400 through their accomplishments. Peter was among CT’s first licensed pharmacists and he opened the town’s first pharmacy. Bertha was a shop owner, chiropodist, and hairdresser. Their daughter Ann followed in her parents successful footsteps, working in the shop and becoming a licensed pharmacist at one point, before finally pursuing her dream of writing. Ann Lane Petry went on to publish six books, some of which have won her international fame, including The Drug Store Cat, based on her memories of the pharmacy when she was growing up, and Country Place, a novel based on her experiences living in Old Saybrook. She is most well-known for her best selling 1946 novel, The Street, a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship book about life in Harlem that sold over one million copies, making her the first African-American female author to achieve this distinction.