Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy Returns Home as It Marks 25 Years in Abilene
Updated: Sep 9
Twenty-five years after Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy began serving Abilene, the locally rooted pharmacy is celebrating a milestone that carries a little extra meaning this year: a return home.
September 21 marks the pharmacy’s 25th anniversary in Abilene. The following day, Driving Dickinson County will join Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy for a ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at 105 NW 3rd St., Abilene, Kansas 67410.
The event will celebrate both the pharmacy’s return to its longtime location and 25 years of serving the Abilene community.
Just months ago, though, the future of that location felt much less certain.
A fire forced Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy out of its building and into a temporary space across the street for about eight months. For two weeks after the fire, the Abilene location was closed entirely while the team worked through what came next.
For pharmacist Cameron Mooney, the response from customers during that time was something he will not soon forget.
“We are eternally grateful for the overwhelming support from the community during the two weeks we had to be closed,” Mooney said.
Some patients traveled to Patterson’s other locations in Salina and Clay Center rather than move their prescriptions elsewhere. Others who did temporarily transfer returned as soon as the pharmacy was able to reopen in its temporary location.
Mooney said the loyalty was humbling.
Customers, he said, were initially worried because they did not know what would happen to their pharmacy. Once the temporary location opened, that uncertainty shifted quickly to relief.
And now, after months of working across the street, the team is back where it started.
“It feels like a breath of fresh air,” Mooney said. “Such a relief to be back in what feels like home.”
Back home, with a fresh start
The renovated pharmacy keeps much of the familiar layout customers knew before the fire, but the space received a refresh, along with some changes around the register and customer-service area.
Certified Pharmacy Technician Emily Heller has worked at Patterson Pharmacy for 10 years. For her, the return to the original building feels personal.
“We are ecstatic to be back ‘home,’” Heller said. “I have worked for Patterson Pharmacy for 10 years, so the building and crew mean so much to me.”
Heller said she is enjoying the newness of the renovated space and the opportunity the team had to rethink parts of the store while keeping what worked.
“We kept the majority of the layout the same, but also made big changes to benefit us and our customers,” she said.
Through the disruption, Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy retained all eight of its employees. The Abilene location serves patients from throughout Dickinson County and the surrounding area, making the pharmacy not only a downtown business, but also part of the region’s healthcare and workforce fabric.
While the pharmacy may look refreshed, Mooney said its focus has not changed.
“We continue to strive to provide the best customer service possible,” he said.
That continuity mattered during the eight-month displacement. The pharmacy kept its full team intact while continuing to serve patients from Abilene, communities across Dickinson County and beyond.
A community that showed up
The fire disrupted more than a building. It disrupted a place where people had become accustomed to familiar faces, personal attention and trusted service.
Heller said the response from the community during the transition stood out.
“The support from the community was so powerful,” she said. “We had many individuals offer to lend a helping hand.”
That support extended beyond customers.
Mooney credited John Kolhoff, KRH Construction and Koffman Electric for their work helping restore the space. He also expressed appreciation for Harvey and Auburn pharmacies for helping care for Patterson patients while the Abilene location was closed, along with Patterson’s own Salina and Clay Center locations.
For customers, the effort to keep serving people mattered.
Mary Montgomery has been a Patterson Pharmacy customer since the business purchased the pharmacy from her parents in 2001.
When she first saw a photo of the fire online, she said the reaction was immediate.
“At first I felt disbelief, but then when it sunk in I felt panic and loss,” Montgomery said. “I couldn’t imagine having to go somewhere else to get my prescriptions.”
That worry did not last long.
“Thankfully, I never had to worry about that because in very little time at all they had a plan to bounce back,” she said. “They kept all of their customers informed and found a way to take care of everyone.”
For Montgomery, that personal connection is part of what makes a local pharmacy different.
“It offers so many personal touches that you would never get from a big box store or an online pharmacy,” she said.
More than 25 years of pharmacy history
Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy’s 25th anniversary is part of a much longer pharmacy story on this block of downtown Abilene.
According to longtime Abilene resident Marcella Steinhauser, there has been a pharmacy in the Historic Post Office Block since 1921.
Bernard and Marcella Steinhauser became part of that history in 1962, when they moved from Hiawatha and purchased the pharmacy. Bernard had recently graduated from Creighton and was looking for a pharmacy to call his own.
The couple liked the downtown location and the businesses surrounding it, and together they used their savings to make a down payment.
The early years were not easy.
Marcella recalled long 12-hour days and a business that grew one department at a time. Eventually, the pharmacy expanded into adjoining buildings, adding a Hallmark card department and gift department along the way.
But through every stage of growth, Marcella said service remained the priority.
One night, at about 2 a.m., the phone rang. Enterprise Estates had a resident who urgently needed medication. Outside, snow was falling so heavily that Marcella said she could barely see across the street.
She told Bernard there was no way he could safely make the trip to Enterprise and back.
His response was simple: “I have to.”
He went.
Marcella stayed home and prayed until he returned.
It is a story from another era, but to Marcella, the principle behind it is still visible today.
“This is the kind of service that Patterson Pharmacy inherited from Steinhauser Pharmacy,” she said. “And I know they believe in the same kind of service.”
At 102 years old, Marcella is still a Patterson Pharmacy customer.
“They still take great care of me,” she said.
A milestone worth celebrating
Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy will mark 25 years in Abilene on September 21, 2026.
This year, the anniversary is about more than time in business.
It is about returning to a longtime downtown location after an unexpected disruption. It is about eight employees staying with the business, customers remaining loyal, neighboring pharmacies helping when needed and a community continuing to support a healthcare provider that serves people across Dickinson County and the surrounding area.
For Patterson Pharmacy, the doors are open again in the place that feels like home.
And after 25 years under the Patterson name — and more than a century of pharmacy service on the block — that feels like something worth celebrating.
Ribbon Cutting CelebrationTuesday, Sept. 22, 2026 | 4 p.m.Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy105 NW 3rd St., Abilene, KS 67410.
Driving Dickinson County invites community members, business leaders and customers to join Patterson Healthcare Pharmacy in celebrating its return home and 25 years in Abilene.
Comments