ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Title
Flowerfield Bulb Farm Collection
Collection Number
SC 419
OCLC Number
In-process
Creator
Various
Provenance
Under review
Extent, Scope, and Content Note
The collection is comprised of 10 linear inches of files pertaining to agriculture and horticulture, and the approximate 362-acre Flowerfield Bulb Farm located in present-day St. James, Suffolk County, New York. Literature and subject files on gardening and farming date from 1925 to 1946. Correspondence dates from between 1938 and 1942. The collection also includes sketches of buildings on the property, seed and equipment catalogs, listings of cultivated plant species, and a file on the 1939 New York World’s Fair horticulture exhibition titled “Gardens on Parade.”
Arrangement and Processing Note
Finding aid updated and revised by Kristen J. Nyitray in January 2020.
Language
English
Restrictions on Access
The collection is open to researchers without restriction.
Rights and Permissions
Stony Brook University Libraries’ consent to access as the physical owner of the collection does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission where needed prior to publication.
Citation
Flowerfield Bulb Farm Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.
Historical Note
The property that comprises the location of the Flowerfield Bulb Farm was owned and developed as a wholesale flower business in the early 1900s by floriculturist, businessman, and politician John Lewis Childs (May 13, 1856-March 6, 1921).
Childs was born in Jay, Maine (Franklin County) and lived through the age of seventeen in Buckfield, Maine. In 1874, he began working as an apprentice for seed distributors C.L. Allen, and V. H. Hallock, Son & Thorpe of Queens, New York, in an area called East Hinsdale. He would later develop this location to found Floral Park, and would serve as the village’s first president. In 1875, Childs launched his own mail order seed catalogue business which segued into successful horticultural and real estate enterprises. He also had a strong interest in orinthology and amassed one of the largest collections of birds and bird eggs in the United States.
On April 16, 1886, Childs married Mary Caroline (Carrie) Goldsmith (1869-1937). In 1894 and 1895, he was a Republican member of the New York State Senate.
In 1907, Childs purchased acreage in Flowerfield, Suffolk County, New York (situated between Stony Brook and Smithtown) from Suffolk Farms Company, Inc., to expand his wholesale flower business. As reported in The New York Times, 100 of the 800 acres were dedicated to growing gladiolus, a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family.
Childs died on March 5, 1921, while travelling on a train from Albany, New York to New York City. In the January 1923 issue of The National Nurseryman (v. 31), it was announced that the John Lewis Child Seed, Bulb, and Plant Business was sold to Edward T. Bromfield, with a formal transfer planned for July 1, 1923. Mrs. Childs and her sons planned to continue the wholesale flower business on the Flowerfield property.
In 1937, it was reported that a vice-president of General Motors Corporation purchased 335 acres of the Flowerfield property (The Watchman of the Sunrise Trail, February 4, 1937, p.5). The same year “Flowerfield Bulb Farm,” referred to as “Successor to John Lewis Childs, Inc.,” began to issue catalogs to trade for Japanese irises, new plant varieties, and imported varieties.
The New York Times published on June 9 and June 30 of 1951 articles about the Gyrodyne Company of America contracting to purchase “the 362-acre Bulb Farm Property in Flowerfield, L.I.” from James D. Mooney interests. At the time, the property included five buildings and a siding of the Long Island Rail Road. Gyrodyne was founded in 1946 by Peter J. Papadakos as a helicoper manufacturer company with a facility in Massapequa. The operations were transferred to the newly acquired location in St. James. Beginning in 1975, the focus of the company evolved from the design and manufacturing of helicopters to real estate.
Subjects
Flowerfield Bulb Farm.
Flowerfield Bulb Farm — Catalogs.
Horticulture — New York (State) — Catalogs.
Nursery stock — New York (State) — Catalogs.
Bulbs (Plants) — New York (State) — Catalogs.
Flowers — Seeds — New York (State) — Catalogs.
Seed industry and trade — New York (State) — Catalogs.
Bulbs (Plants)
Flowers — Seeds.
Horticulture.
Nursery stock.
Seed industry and trade.
New York (State)
Agriculture — New York (State) — Long Island.
Agriculture — New York (State) — Long Island — History.
New York World’s Fair — (1939-1940) — History.
INVENTORY
Box 1
Cabbage
Companies
Dahlias
Equipment and supplies (2f)
Erosion and soil
Facts for florists
Fertilizers
Fruit
Fumigation (2f)
Gladiolus
Gladiolus field records
Greenhouses
Horticulture literature
Box 2
Irises
Lawns
Lilies
Machinery
Methyl bromide, gladiolus
Peonies
Pest control
Plant diseases
Seed germinator
Seeds
Sketches of plantings and buildings at Flowefield Bulb Farm.
World’s Fair (New York, 1939)