While the flower wholesale market has always had roots in St. Louis history, it wasn’t always associated with its LaSalle Street address on floral row that it’s known for today. Beginning in 1890, Wholesale houses for the sale of flowers were located primarily on the streets of Olive and Pine in downtown. This was the case due to the proximity of nearby greenhouses and easily accessible street cars.
Between 1890 and 1926, there were nearly 25 different start-up wholesale florists on record. Important in the promotion of St. Louis as a nationally recognized Flower City was the opening of the retail firm of Grimm and Gorly in 1905. With their coined phrase “We give the earth with every plant,” they gave out free flowers, tagged with their name and slogan to every convention in town letting everyone know they were from St. Louis, “The Flower Town.” The wholesale flower market gained greatly from their exposure of flowers and availability to the public.
Then, in late 1926 the land around and including the Pine Street wholesale businesses was cleared and redeveloped, forcing the St. Louis Wholesale Flower Market to find a new location. In 1927, construction began on a single building that was divided into 11 sections, each divided by a tile wall that ran from the basement to the second floor. To this day, floral row still calls this location home.
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