C. O. Bigelow

Dr. Galen Hunter, a Vermont native, established The Village Apothecary Shop in 1838, although he did not operate the store himself. His employee, Clarence Otis Bigelow, purchased the business in 1880, eight years after Hunter's death, and renamed it C. O. Bigelow Apothecaries. He also moved the business two doors north, to a new home at 106–108 Sixth Avenue (today number 414, after the street's renumbering in 1929).

In 1939, William Ginsberg became the owner. Since then, it has been passed down through the Ginsberg family, and as of 2023 it is in the hands of Ian, grandson of William.

There was formerly a chain of stores; however, the only store still operating is the original Sixth Avenue store in Greenwich Village. Its chandeliers, though now electrified, still have their gas fittings. During the extensive blackouts on the East Coast in 1965 and 1977, Bigelow's was the only pharmacy between Maine and the Carolinas with enough light to remain open for business.

All of the other stores have closed. The Easton Town Center store in Columbus, Ohio, closed its doors in February 2012. Several stores closed in 2009: Northshore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts, closed June 28, 2009; Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, closed September 4, 2009; and Plaza at King of Prussia in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania/Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania, closed July 1, 2009. Other closed stores were located in Copley Place in Boston, Westfield Hawthorn Center in Vernon Hills, Illinois, and Water Tower Place in Chicago, which closed in 2010. The location at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, closed on August 18, 2012.

A C. O. Bigelow store was to be built in Tysons Corner Center in Tysons Corner, Virginia, but the scheduled construction was canceled.