About The Findery

The Findery became a reality from a vision that began in 2010 with Jute.

The vision behind The Findery was to have a shop that was cohesive with a well rounded blend of timeless collections that make a house a home. We travel all over the country to find unique items that bring you back to the time of your childhood. Our goal is to teach our children about the past while living in the present.

The Percy Medicine building was the perfect place to infuse the past to the present. The building is more than 100 years old and is beautiful in its natural raw state. As a family, we wanted to do a lot of the work ourselves to bring the personality of the building back to life. Hundreds of hours have been spent pulling thousands of nails from an old wooden floor that we were told couldn’t be salvaged, pulling up asphalt and chicken wire from the floor to reveal the original flooring, and grinding down layers and layers of paint from the old brick walls. The Percy Medicine has a feeling of stillness and peace the moment you walk through the front door. Just wait until you walk through those doors; you will feel it too.

Jute was fully prepared to encompass the entire Percy Medicine Building, but as excitement grew while this building was brought back to life, so was the desire for others to be part of The Findery. If we were to bring other shops in, would they share the vision of embracing the past and future with a cohesive feel? Would they share the passion for people and serving others to make their homes in this crazy life a place of peace and just be able to breath? We believe there is so much more to just having a shop. We are embedding ourselves into the lives of our customers as we help them choose what they will bring into THEIR homes. These will hopefully be items that have been passed down from the generations of our great grandparents, our grandparents and the present generation. What will you pass on for the generations to follow?

The shops that are in The Findery were each considered with great thought and prayer. The vision of each unique shop was invited to complement each other through their breathtaking talent and creativity. Bringing in a few other shops help satisfy our desire for things in the past and the present. We can’t wait to introduce all of these amazing shops with you!

We will go to the past to bring customer service back to the days where customers were respected and to the future to bring you options beyond your imagination.

The Findery will continue to grow and change just as time continues to tick. We believe there is so much more to come as we wait for the vision of what is to come. We can’t wait!

 

 

History of the Percy Medicine Building

A. W. Percy, a buggy whip salesman, was traveling by train with his family from New York to their new home in Waco, Texas in 1898 when his young son Albert became sick with an upset stomach. The family stopped in Kentucky and found a local physician, Dr. McDonald who prescribed a bismuth subsalicylate-based remedy. Albert recovered but became sick again upon arrival in Waco. A. W. Percy, who had received a copy of the prescription, asked the local pharmacist, W. S. Merrick, to compound the medicine for his son. Thus began their partnership and the launch of Baby Percy Medicine.

In 1904, the Merrick Medicine Company was founded by Merrick and Percy. The Percy Medicine Building was built in 1908 at the corner of 8th and Webster where it still stands today. In 1938, Baby was dropped from the name of the sole product sold by the company. Percy Medicine still retains its original formula of bismuth subsalicylate, calcium hydroxide, potassium carbonate, rhubarb extract, sugar, cinnamon, and orange flavoring.

Mules used to haul product from the loading dock to a nearby train station. Legend has it that Babe Ruth knocked a baseball out of long-gone Katy Park in downtown Waco during a New York Yankees barnstorming stop — and it landed atop the Percy building. Until 2010, Percy Medicine was still produced at the original factory at 8th and Webster Streets in Waco, but since that time manufacturing has been outsourced to a company in Texarkana. Because Percy Medicine contains 5% alcohol, the Merrick Company holds the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's oldest continuously active industrial alcohol permit, first issued in 1939.