About The B Ruppe Drugstore

B Ruppe Drugs was the longest continuously operating drugstore in Albuquerque, opened in 1883 by Bernard Ruppe. The shop began in Old Town and moved to Second Street before finding its current home in the Barelas neighborhood. After earning his pharmacy degree from the University of New Mexico in 1949, Tom Sanchez began working for the business and eventually took over the drugstore in 1965 after its move to Fourth Street in the Barelas.

Tom’s sister-in-law, Maclovia Zamora began working at B Ruppe in 1981, when she settled back in Albuquerque after her husband’s military career ended. In 1985, she became part owner of the pharmacy and converted it from a traditional pharmacy to a yerberia. Up until the store’s closure, Doña Maclovia Sanchez de Zamora provided herbal consultations and healing to many people across New Mexico and beyond. By her passing in 2017, she was a renowned natural healer who represented New Mexico culinary heritage and herbal healing traditions on the national stage. In 2017, Homewise purchased the building with guidance from the Barelas Community Coalition in order to redevelop the site as a revitalized space where traditional healers could renew Maclovia Zamora’s work.