The SHAUTER DRUG CO. was a small black-owned chain of drugstores established on 16 Apr. 1936 by ROBERT H. SHAUTER. A native of Saybrook, OH, near Ashtabula, Shauter attended CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS and in 1923 graduated from the School of Pharmacy at Western Reserve University (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY). He worked for several pharmacies in the Central area in the 1920s and early 1930s. In 1936, with financial backing from Willie Pierson and Roger Price, Shauter bought the Fox Pharmacy, 9208 Cedar Ave., and operated it under his own name. In 1938 he opened a store at 2313 E. 55th St., exclusively for prescription service. In the spring of 1943, he bought the Leiken Drug Store at the center of Cleveland's black community at Woodland and E. 55th St. The only black member of the Ohio Northern Druggists Assn. and the Cleveland Academy of Pharmacy, and prominent in the civic affairs of Cleveland's black community, Shauter died at age 40 on 17 Dec. 1944. At the time of his death, the Call & Post hailed his 3-store chain. In 1947 a store was established at 1096 E. 105th and the prescription pharmacy store was sold. By 1960 the chain included 4 stores in the inner city; by 1972 only 1 store was listed in the city directory, and it was vacant by 1977.
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