Articles from the May 6, 2014 edition

May 6, 2014

Burnside drugstore By Finn J.D. John On December 7, 1934, Ben Votruba left his room at the Bridge Hotel, a run-down flophouse on the corner of Union and Burnside, and made his way across the Burnside Bridge to the Pioneer Drugstore on the other side of the river. Ben was, essentially, a washed-up alcoholic. Although still relatively young in years — he was 46 — those years had seen some hard living. His long-term drinking problem had taken him to rock bottom and instead of bouncing back, he’d stayed there, doing whatever he had t...