On October 12, two Moultrie Middle School students walked into H & R Sweet Shop on Royall Avenue and pointed at the sour candy under the glass counter. That was two days before the shop served its last customer. The Post and Courier reported the scene, along with manager Richardean Hubbard's description of what the place had been for years: kids came straight from school for a drink and some candy.
H & R closed on October 14, 2026, 81 years after it opened. Only one business in Mount Pleasant has been around longer, Pitt Street Pharmacy, a few streets away.
The town's two oldest businesses were built the same way. Neither one opened as a plain restaurant. Each put a counter seat inside a place people already visited for something else, and that setup is a big part of why they lasted. Now that H & R is closed, the pharmacy's soda fountain is the only place in the Old Village that still works that way.
A barbershop on one side, a diner on the other
H & R Sweet Shop opened at 102 Royall Avenue on April 2, 1945, the day after Easter. A Moultrie News piece marking its 75th anniversary describes how the building was first laid out. Raleigh "Pat" Johnson Sr. ran a barbershop on one side, and for a while he was the only licensed barber in Mount Pleasant. The other side was a full-service ice cream shop and diner. He and his wife, Harriet, owned it together.
So in the early years, a haircut and a hot dog happened in the same building. Their son, Raleigh Jr., known to everyone as "Coffee," joined the diner side in 1962. According to that anniversary account, people came in for ice cream, milkshakes, hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, pork chops, fried chicken, fried shrimp and flounder, hush puppies, fries, red rice and collard greens.
Coffee Johnson ran the restaurant until September 2026. ABC News 4 called H & R "one of the town's oldest continuously operating businesses."
The building still had two halves at the end
The pairing lasted right up to the final week. Owner Anthony Major, who confirmed the closure on October 13, also runs Major Hats & Suits in the space next door, where colorful, elaborate hats cover the walls. WCBD also reported that Major owns the adjoining shop.
The menu barely changed over the decades. The Post and Courier's closing-week visit found hot dogs, pork chop sandwiches, fried shrimp and flounder plates listed on the counter. The burgers, served in foam takeout boxes, were the main draw and had earned a spot among the best around Charleston. On October 12, photos of Coffee Johnson and his father hung on the green walls beside a faded Moultrie News clipping about the shop.
Hubbard first came to work behind the counter because Johnson asked her to, and she later ran the day-to-day operations. She told The Post and Courier what she would miss:
"I am going to miss the customers. I've met a lot of nice people from being in here."
She also said the place reminded people of the old days of Mount Pleasant. Those days look specific once you know the history: a corner building where a barber, a diner and a candy case shared one address, and kids stopped in on the way home.
Pitt Street Pharmacy runs on the same idea
Pitt Street Pharmacy at 111 Pitt Street is the oldest business in town, as ABC News 4 noted in its H & R closing story. The pharmacy's own history says Washington "Wattie" Zeigler, RPh, opened it in the late 1930s. Brandi Sherbert is listed as owner and pharmacist.
It is set up the same way H & R was in 1945. People come in for a prescription, and a lunch counter with old-school soda fountain stools sits in the same room. The pharmacy's soda fountain page says generations have grown up at that counter and that movies have been filmed there. Its motto is "Come In. Slow Down. Relax. Enjoy."
Side by side, the two businesses look like this:
| H & R Sweet Shop | Pitt Street Pharmacy | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 102 Royall Avenue | 111 Pitt Street |
| Opened | April 2, 1945 | Late 1930s |
| What shared the building | Barbershop at opening; Major Hats & Suits next door in 2026 | Pharmacy |
| What the counter served | Burgers, hot dogs, pork chop sandwiches, fried shrimp and flounder, candy | Grilled cheese, BLTs, corn dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, milkshakes |
| Status in November 2026 | Closed October 14, 2026 | Open |
The fountain menu keeps things simple. Ham and cheese or turkey and cheese, toasted or grilled. A BLT made with applewood smoked bacon. PB&J, a corn dog and a hamburger. The grilled cheese, which the pharmacy describes as "just one slice of American cheese," has been voted Mount Pleasant's best grilled cheese several years running, according to the pharmacy. It also serves ice cream, milkshakes and drinks.
The posted hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is closed Sunday. Mount Pleasant Magazine's Best of Mount Pleasant 2025 awards named Pitt Street Pharmacy a finalist for Best Pharmacy, which means it's being judged on the prescription side as well as the milkshakes.
What one counter has to carry now
Until last month, the Old Village had two of these counters within a few blocks. Kids heading home from Moultrie Middle had H & R's candy case on Royall Avenue. Someone picking up a prescription on Pitt Street could stay for a grilled cheese. Now the pharmacy is the only counter left that comes attached to an everyday errand, in the only building in town with a longer history than H & R.
That changes what a trip to Pitt Street looks like. The after-school drink, the burger in a foam box and the stool where a neighbor might already be sitting used to be split between two businesses. Now they all point to 111 Pitt Street.
Where to find the neighborhood in person this season
The fall and holiday calendar gives you a few chances to start a morning in the Old Village and end it at the fountain.
- Saturday, November 14: Annual Old Village Harbor 5k. The Mount Pleasant Recreation Department hosts the race from 8:30 a.m. to noon. It starts and finishes at Alhambra Hall, 131 Middle Street, and the course runs through the Old Village, according to Experience Mount Pleasant. The pharmacy's posted Saturday hours run until 2 p.m., so there's time for a milkshake after the race.
- Saturday, December 12: Mount Pleasant Holiday Market & Craft Show. Hosted by the Town of Mount Pleasant from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market Pavilion, 645 Coleman Boulevard.
- Sunday, December 13: 31st Annual Mount Pleasant Christmas Light Parade. From 5:30 to 8 p.m. along West Coleman Boulevard, from Live Oak Drive to Patriots Point Road.
The Town of Mount Pleasant confirmed the Holiday Market and parade dates in an August 4, 2026 announcement. The parade falls on a Sunday, when the pharmacy is closed, so if you want a fountain stop that weekend, Saturday is the day to go.
At PRL Consulting Group, Paul Lindemann follows the Old Village block by block, and that includes the corner storefronts that have been part of daily life here for generations. If you own in the Old Village and want to understand how this stretch of Royall Avenue and Pitt Street fits into what your own property is worth, request a market valuation and we'll go through it with you.
