6 
JOHN LEWIS CHILDS, FLORAL PARK, QUEENS CO., N. Y. 
A Sketch of Floral Park. 
The Great Seed and Florist Business of John Lewis Childs, From Which a Large 
and Thriving Village Has Been Built Up ... 200 Acres in Flowers ... 
1,500,000 Catalogues Issued Annually ... Interesting 
Facts ... The Mayflower. 
J OHN LEWIS CHILDS, the founder of Floral Park, and 
sole proprietor of the great seed and florist business there 
located, was born in Maine in 185(5. At the age of 17. 
(1874), he went to Queens, Lopg Island, N. Y., and took a 
position in a large greenhouse establishment. The next year 
he hired a few acres of ground a mile and a half from 
Queens, on the railroad line, and commenced business as 
Seedsman and Florist. The total sales from his first Cata¬ 
logue or price-list (8 pages) was barely $50, and it was five 
years before his business showed the slightest encourage¬ 
ment. It then began to grow rapidly. He purchased the 
land he occupied, and from time to time added inoro to it* 
The railroad company soon established a new station on his 
premises, which, at Mr. Childs’ request, was called Floral 
Park. It became necessary to build bulb and seed houses, 
greenhouses, dwelling houses and a large store to accommo¬ 
date his business. His mails became so large and important 
that the Government established a post office at his place, 
and building continued until now Floral Park is a thriving 
village built up entirely by this one industry, which can 
boast of being the largest and best regulated business of its 
kind in the world. 
LOCATION OF Floral Park is located on Long Island, 
FLORAL PARK. 15 miles from the heart of Brooklyn, 
and is now partly included in the ter¬ 
ritory recently annexed to New York City. The village, 
which has been built up by the business of Mr. Childs, has a 
fine School, Church, Hotel, Stores, Markets, and a system of 
water works. It is one of the most healthy and certainly the 
most beautiful spot in the vicinity of New York. 
CHILDS' The gardens at Floral Park cover al- 
CARDENS. most 200 acres, all in flowers. About 
50 acres of this is in the limits of New 
York..City, the line running through the grounds. These 
gardens border on the Long Island Railroad for a distance 
of more than a mile, ami the magnitude of the floral display 
is not equaled in America, and probably not in the world. 
The land is perfectly flat, of a sandy nature, and particu¬ 
larly well adapted to gardening. About 100 men are em¬ 
ployed in this unique 200-acre flower garden. 
Mr. Childs receives and ships on an 
POST OFFICE, average several tons of mail matter 
each day. This enormous business has 
placed the Floral Park Post Office in the first class, ranking 
with such offices as Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and other 
large cities. No better idea of the amount of business done 
by Mr. Childs can be had than is found in the fact that it is 
sufficient to support a Post Office of the first class, of which 
there are only a very few out of t he 70,662 offices in the United 
States. 
RAILROAD The great Seed and Florist business is 
and FREICHT • accommodated with a Railroad Station 
and Freight Office close at hand. 
There are 30 trains each way per day to and from the heart 
3f the city, both to and from the Brooklyn and New York 
divisions. 
EXPRESS, Floral Park has Telegraph and Tele- 
TELECRAPH and phone connections with all parts of tho 
TELEPHONE. country, and the Long Island, National 
and Wells Fargo Express Companies 
receive the shipments of Bulb3, Plants and Seeds and deliver 
same to destination, or to other companies. 
THE MASSIVE The main building is an immense four- 
FIRE PROOF story and basement building built ol 
SEED STORE, brick and iron, and, consequently* 
thoroughly fire-proof. This is probably 
the finest and best-equipped Seed Store in the world. It i» 
heated by steam and lighted by gas, and has all modern ap¬ 
pliances for executing business accurately and with dis¬ 
patch. In this building are located all the business offices^ 
the Seed Department which occupies the entire third story* 
and the packing and mailing department which occupie® 
all of the first floor as well as the great brick packing room 
in the rear of the building. Over fifty people are employed 
in this building alone. 
SEED HOUSE This is a frame building with a large- 
NUMBER 2. amount of floor space used for storing* 
cleaning and drying seeds and for 
making boxes. It is located about 500 feet from tho brick 
building and, like it, has an immense cellar for bulbs and a. 
large range of greenhouses connecting with it in the rear. 
THE This is a large brick building 100x40 
BULB HOUSE. feet, three stories and basement, used 
solely for storing bulbs. During the 
late fall and winter it is filled with Gladiolus bulbs from top 
to bottom, which the late winter and spring sales reduce 
The small bulbs which are not sold are planted in the spring 
and again fill this immense building when harvested in tho 
fall. 
THE CREEN- The greenhouses are very extensive 
HOUSES, and are divided into four sections or 
blocks. There is a set of five largo 
houses, some of which are 200 feet long by 20 feet wide, in 
the rear of the big fire-proof Seed-house. A set of nine 
houses in the rear of Seed-house number 2. In another 
location there is another set of eight houses, and on tho 
lawn there is another set of eight fancy houses used largely 
for rare and fancy plants. 
COLD There is a complete system of brick 
SHEDS. cold sheds connected with the Pack¬ 
ing Department of tho big Seed-house, 
In these sheds all large quantities of Shrubs, Fruit Trees 
and Hardy Perennial Plants are stored that they may ho 
available for filling Southern, Pacific or Foreign orders at 
any time during the winter. 
A STEAM Mr. Childs also has a steam lumber 
MILL. and planing mill with all the neces¬ 
sary machinery for preparing lumber 
for building purposes. The large amount of building it has 
been necessary to do in building up Floral Park rendered 
such a mill quite necessary. 
