Heart on Main Street has presented a $5,000 rebuilding grant to Webster’s Community Pharmacy in Altadena, California, which was hit during the January 2025 wildfires in Southern California.
Meredith Miller has owned the long-standing pharmacy and gift shop alongside her husband and pharmacist Michael Miller since 2010.
“This year is our 100-year anniversary of continuous operation,” says Meredith Miller, adding that the business has always had a big presence in the Altadena community. “Webster’s has always been a big part of the landscape.”
The longtime store was hit by the Southern California wildfires in January 2025. Although the building survived, all inventory was lost. Miller adds that thousands of people in town lost single-family homes and many commercial buildings burned to the ground.
“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong in those fires,” she recalls. “I would say 90% of my customer base lost their homes.”
She and Michael were able to go back to the store by February 2025 to clean. According to Miller, all inventory in both the gift shop and pharmacy had to be destroyed due to smoke damage.
“We had to start all over again and buy every single item we had to throw away,” she says. “We had insurance — thank God we had insurance. We were able to recoup most of our inventory.”
Help from generous vendors and grants like the Heart on Main Street rebuilding grant also helped this small gift shop rebuild and grow.
Receiving support
Over the past year and a half, vendor support and grants have helped Webster’s Community Pharmacy to return to normal. Miller says the store received grants from Banc of California and Steadfast LA as well as the Backing Small Businesses program supported by American Express and Main Street America to help offset costs from replenishing.
Some of the store’s vendors also donated merchandise for Webster’s to give to community members who lost everything in the fire.
“We set up a donation station for the public to come in and take what they needed,” Miller shares. “We received generous donations from DM Merchandising and Stephen Young Showroom.”
Miller says Richard Freeman, outside sales director at DM Merchandising, also suggested that Webster’s apply for a Heart on Main Street grant, which the store received in April.
“Heart on Main Street was very happy to help us out,” says Miller. “They visited us and toured Altadena and got to see what it was like. Their grant was really useful to us since we’re still buying and trying to get our inventory back to where it used to be before the fire.”
Returning support
Since reopening in spring 2025, Miller says Webster’s has also looked for ways to support people and businesses in the area as they recovered from the fire. The store supported the Altadena Library by inviting a mobile library truck to come to the Webster’s parking lot as the library was rebuilt. Webster’s also told USPS it could serve as a small post office because the town’s main post office burned down.
“People didn’t have anywhere to buy stamps, so we are now a post office as well,” Miller shares.
Webster’s began to support more local artists in need by selling their T-shirt, posters and jewelry in the gift shop. Altadena name-drop merchandise also grew in popularity after the wildfires, helping to create a stronger sense of pride for community members and the region.
“We had a line that we started several years ago called Beautiful Altadena with some T-shirts and license plate holders,” says Miller. “After the fires, people were wanting Altadena anything. They wanted to support the community and wear Altadena T-shirts. They wanted to show the world we were going to make it.”
She adds that she even raised enough money through sales of these popular name-drop items and local artwork to develop a commercial that would air for three months to encourage more people to shop and support the Altadena community.
“A handful of businesses were open in Altadena, but everyone was struggling. No one was living in town and people didn’t want to come up and visit,” Miller explains. “So I made a 30-second pro bono commercial to encourage people to shop and dine in Altadena. This was all based on selling the Altadena merchandise in my store.”
Life may not be quite back to normal for Altadena, but Miller says she’s been happy to see the growth in community pride over the past year and a half.
“I’ve seen LA County step up in a lot of ways with programs, and some of the grant writing to help people has been very generous,” she says. “I think it’s just a long process for everyone to rebuild. We’re here, though, and we’ll do the best we can to help the community. It just feels like that’s what’s natural to do.”
