The typical products Stabler sold included medicine, farm and garden equipment, surgical instruments, dental equipment, soap, perfume, Buffalo and Bedford mineral water, cigars, window glass, paint and varnish, artists' supplies, combs and brushes.

By 1806, Stabler began traveling extensively to Quaker church meetings throughout the region, leaving oldest son William to run the business in his absence.

Keeping with the family-run tradition, William brought several of his brothers and also his brother-in-law, John Leadbeater, into the business between 1832 and his death in 1852.

Once the Civil War erupted, Alexandria was quickly occupied by Union troops – a fact noted in the Leadbeater business' daybook.

After the First Battle of Manassas, Union troops poured into Alexandria and the Apothecary's books reported that many soldiers stood in line to buy "Hot Drops", a cough expectorant containing paprika and alcohol.

The company operated in 11 buildings in Alexandria, including the two main buildings on Fairfax Street, offices on King Street, warehouses on Lee and Prince Streets, and an office in Washington, D.C. By the turn of the century however, the family business was beginning to feel the effects of the growing commercial pharmacies and synthetic drug companies, as well as the downturn in the economy, and the business declared bankruptcy in 1933, just days before the death of its owner, Edward S. Leadbeater, Jr.

The majority of the contents and archives were purchased at auction on July 19, 1933, by L. Manuel Hendler, a Baltimore ice cream merchant with an affinity for the history of pharmacy.

With the buildings and collection secured, the structures were conjecturally returned to their 18th-century appearance by noted restoration architect, Thomas Tileston Waterman.

After an extensive renovation adding a fire suppression system, and re-stabilizing the structure, the Landmarks Society donated the museum and its important contents to the City of Alexandria in November 2006.

Shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run, exhausted Union soldiers sought comfort from the store's merchandise.

[8] The tough times of the Great Depression put the Leadbeater Drug Co., then one of the oldest pharmacies in the United States, out of business, but the Alexandria locals, and Manuel Hendler of Baltimore, recognized the history of the establishment and purchased it at the foreclosure auction.