Site of Home and SeedHouse
Village of Floral Park, Nassau County, New York
Marker Inscription
Site of Home and Seedhouse of John Lewis Childs Founder and first President of Floral Park. Publisher, State Senator, Author
The Story
In the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, this spot on Long Island was the heart of one of America's great mail-order seed and bulb empires. John Lewis Childs built his home and seedhouse here, and the flower fields and catalog business he grew were so central that the surrounding community took its name — Floral Park — from them. Childs was more than a nurseryman: he served as the village's founder and first president, sat in the New York State Senate, and published horticultural writing that carried the gospel of gardening across the country.
Why it matters
It marks the birthplace of a village that literally grew out of a mail-order seed business, a vivid example of how Gilded Age commerce and the national reach of the catalog trade could conjure an entire American town.
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Related people
- · John Lewis Childs
Related events
- · Founding of the Village of Floral Park
Themes & tags
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