l ’an*
8
Portland Observer
Thursday. October 10, 1974
Nick Schroeder stands in a bed oí tu li)" next to
>'d greenhouse of the Flower Home in
I . h ry s n n th e m it n i s
(Continued from pg. 1. « ’I- 91
City Commissioner William
Bo ts uts 20th Anniversary-
cake of the Flower Home in
,.•41 with Nick and D o rthj
Schroeder
The lights of Nick ’*
Flower
look in his eyes he turned to
me and said 'If you don't go
with me. I'll take it alone.’
So. I decided to go in with
him."
It was 1921.
The flower
shop in question was owned
by two brothers and a sister.
The brothers wanted to sell,
but the sister didn't. When
a price was finally proof-
fered. the cautious
Miss
Bradley nixed the idea.
"I
didn't want to put a mort
gage on it cause as a child
that's all we did
wipe off
mortgages.”
Nick firm ly believed that it
could succeed and provide a
good living. So in 1921 they
leased it for three years and
became
partners
in
the
Home
blazed
across Union
-Avenue.
florist business. It was eight
years later that Miss Bradley
took M r. Schroeder and they
became
partners
in
life.
They finally bought the place
in 1924 and in 1925. built the
first glass conservatory to
occupy the premises.
In
1929.
Miss
Bradley
made a \ isit to Ia»s Angeles
where she saw her first neon
sign. " I tol ‘ ick that they
had signs tha. look just like
a big sausage so we put one
up too. It was the first neon
light on Union Avenue an..
Western Union told us that
they used to get their bear
ings from that sign."
In
1930
news of the
planned widening of Union
Avenue prompted a thorough
re examination of their oper
ation. A serious look comes
over M rs. Newell's face as
she
recalls
those
hectic
times.
“W e had already
bought some of the houses
around the store as well as
enlarged the store.
When
we built the first conserva
torv. the builder had told us
that it was all steel con
structed and that we could
take it down and assemble it
elsewhere.
I said to Nick,
T h a t's dumb. W hat does he
think we're going to take it
down for?'
W ell, it was
taken down when they en
larged the street in 1930. It
was moved to Seaside and
put in P o rtla n d
M ayor
George Baker's costal home.
“When the widening of
Union Avenue began,” re
calls Mrs. New ell, “some
folks w eren't satisfied with
what the city gave them for
their property. So they said
X
Before
Studio
A fte r
Stylemasters
B arbering and
'we are just going to leave
everything
there.'
One
morning a big steam shovel
came along and Zoop', took
out people'« porches and
everything."
The Schroeder's had cut
the front half of their on
ginal store off and put it on
the lot next door. The old
greenhouse was taken down
and in its place came three
new ones, two conservatories
and an attractive showroom.
The interior was finished in
mahogany and Italian traver
tine. Counters and fixtures,
including the icebox, were all
in ornamental tile matching
the travertine.
A monumental
wrought
iron stairway lead to the
lecond floor, which housed
fisplavs and stork rooms A
itriking
feature
was the
glazed and opalescent art
glass panel over the main
entrance.
And
as
the
Schroeder's had pioneered
several years previously, the
building was outlined in green
neon light.
Although they
werd still in the same spot,
the address was changed
from X66 Union Avenue to
4040 N .E . Union Avenue.
T he c o n s e rv a to rie s on
either side of the building no
doubt made the flower shop
one of the most beautiful
edifices on Union Avenue.
One of the conservatories
was used for the display of
seasonal flowers and plants
and the other was made into
an exotic garden, w ith a
(o m u l fountain, bird bath,
palms and tropical shrub
bery.
Birds and goldfish
completed the picture para
dise.
Nick and Dorthy Schroe
der. however, gave Portland
more than just a beautiful
new building. In an article
in the November 9. 1941
Oregon Journal. Nick was
quoted as saying. “Folks are
accusing me of being the
grandfather
of all
these
chrysanthemum shows. Yes,
I am guilty.
And from the
large number of chrysanthe
mum shows which are being
held this fall, it looks as
though Portland has become
chrysanthemum minded at
last."
Although chrysanthemums
were
grown
in
Portland
before the arrival of Nick's
Flower Home, they were
mainly scraggly varieties of
little beauty. Nick felt that
since people had beautiful
roses in the summertime,
they should also have spec
tacular flowers in the fall.
So the Schroeders started
h o ld in g
C h ry s a n th e m u m
Shows.
The shows and the out
standing flowers soon at
tra d e d
w id e
a tte n tio n .
Crowds flocked to Nick's
Flower Home to learn of the
beauty of the chrysanthe
mum and how to cultivate
them. By 1935, over 15,000
people attended the show
each year in November. Al
though
th e
S c h ro e d e rs
stopped holding the shows
during World W ar I I . the
beauty of Portland's chry
santhemums and the de
served fame Portland has
achieved for this fine flower
is a result of the foresight
and excellent promotion by
Nick and Dorthy Schroeder.
Another of Nick's major
contributions to the Portland
florist business was the be
ginning of the wholesale
flower
m arket.
Flow er
peddlers used to visit each
flo ris t shop in d iv id u a lly ,
which seemed a waste of
time to Nick.
So he in
stigated the development of
a flower m arket for them.
Today there are several
large stablishments on Grand
Avenue
dealing
only
in
wholesale flowers as a result
of his efforts many years
ago.
Times changed and people
grow older and one day Nick
turned to his wife of 31 years
For The M a n of A c tio n
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FOR
1
1
i Reprinted from <Md Portland
Today.)
S IZ E S y o u w a n t
A D P R IS S .
‘¿NBMwivr
and became Mrs. Dorthy
Newell.
Nick's Flow er Home was
indeed the "showplace of
Portland". Today, the show
place is gone, torn down in
Need
—.
Glasses
V A R IE T IE S y o u lik<
N A M L ___
»
SHOP
4 6 3 8 N E S an d y B lvd.
Please arrange free demonstration
:
and said " I t ’s tim e for us to
get out."
Reflecting back,
Mrs. New ell remembers how
dearly she love«) the place
and how she didn't want to
let it. go. “He told me that if
anything happened to him, 1
was to unload this place. I
said I'd keep it up. He said
it would kill me.“
She recognized the neigh
horhood had changed and
it was rapidly becoming the
center of Portland's Black
community. Glass was being
destroyed daily in the two
conservatories and break ins
were becoming common. It
was several years before the
W atts riots, hut N irk , ac
cording to Dorthy, saw the
handwriting
on the
wall
when he told her. "Babe, you
haven't seen anything yet."
The end of Nick's Flower
Home came to a conclusion
when E rv Lind offered to
buy the business
M r. Lind
had a flower shop on Knott
Street and felt that if he
bought the place he could do
away with the middle man as
he could
raise his own
flowers in their greenhouses.
M r. Lind was insistent and
talked to an attorney who
was also a friend of the
Schroeders and asked him to
persuade M rs Schroeder to
sell. “I hated to sell it. But
they finally got me into an
attorney's office.
The at
torney told me that this was
the chance of a lifetime. He
looked right at me and said
some day you're going to
thank me for this.'
So I
signed my name."
And so came to a close the
S ch ro eder's o p e ra tio n of
Nick's Flow er Home
The
shop continued to operate
after the Schroeder's sold it
in 1961 Erv Lind, however,
diet! three years after he
purchased it.
For the re
maining time until it finally
closed in 1971. it was oper
ated by his wife Em ma Lind
Mrs. New ell vividly re
members the awful rio t* that
shook Union Avenue io the
summer of 1965. "One day 1
was coming into Portland
and as I got closer and closer
to Union Avenue, I saw
debris all over the streets
and windows broken in all
the stores. I knew what had
happened and I went to M r.
Curry, the attorney who had
helped us sell the place a few
years bark, and I said to him
"Today is the day. You said
I ’ll be glad I sold and today
is the day I ’m glad I did it'."
Emma Lind continued to
operate the shop after the
riots, but it was difficult to
make a go of it no m atter
how well the shop was oper
ated. Night a fter night the
shop was broken into. Dam
age in one form or another
occurred
to
the
delicate
buildings every day. Finally
in 1971 she closed the shop
up and moved to the present
location in Lloyd Center.
"My sisters think it is
terrible and won' even pass
by the old store," muses
Mrs. Newell.
But look, it's
material isn't it? It served
its purpose and God gave us
41 years there. We built it
up. It was hard work, but I
enjoyed it." Nick Schroeder
died in 1966 and Dorthy
Schroeder married a boyhood
friend several years later
RECLINERS
AFRO HAIRPIECES
H arvey Bienert
O w ner
By 1927. Nick's Flow er Home already had a small fleet of
delivery cars and trucks.
but a few weeks what look a
lifetime to create.
The
Flow er Home is now Port
bnd history, a unique Inati
tution lost to the ravages of
a changing society. The area
would no longer support it
and the real of the city no
longer cared.
The green
houses have vanished, the
conservatories are in ruins,
but in gardens throughout
the city chrysanthemums will
be budding in the fall. Their
fall, bright, and beautiful
blooms are a tribute to the
woman and man who created
Nick's ‘ 'lower Home and
made Portland famous
not just for its roaes, but
also for its spectacular ilia
play of the majestic chry
santhemum
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