The Town of Harman
Along the Smokey Hill Trail just north of Cherry Creek was an area of unusual richness. Inhabited mainly by buffalo grass and the occasional clump of wildflowers, the Cherry Creek floodplain offered rich soil for growth.
When Edwin Preston Harman, a lawyer and former Confederate officer, laid claim to 320 acres in 1869, the area was far southeast of town. But as Denver's population expanded sevenfold in the 1870s, the land became more desirable. So in 1882, Edwin subdivided the land and opened the neighborhood for development.
Concerned about the bums, liquor traffic, and dry lands, 150 area residents formed the independent Town of Harman in 1886. But the experiment was short-lived, as high tax rates and a nationwide depression led to re-annexation by the city of Denver in 1894.
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100 + years of History
The first property owner of 301 Harrison was a woman. In 1898 Hattie M Johnson paid $1200 (a reasonable price at the time) for 375 lineal feet of land - the equivalent of 15 standard city lots. At a time when the going rate was $150-300 per unimproved parcel, Johnson had uncovered a good deal.
But in April 1903, the dye was cast for the site’s future when two florists, Ralph C Gray and M H Erickson received title to the land.
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Gray and Erickson
Within a year, Gray and Erickson would erect the block's very first building: a $500 greenhouse measuring 19' x 150'.
The florists had come to the United States from foreign lands: Gray from Canada, and Erickson from Sweden.
Ralph Gray was only 23, and as the greenhouse's primary "nurseryman," Ralph kept close watch over his charges, living just around the corner at 275 Colorado Boulevard.
Gray's partner, Martin Herman Erickson, had arrived in the United States in 1890, and lived a few blocks away at 140 Cook Street for many years.
The neighborhood was sparsely populated for the first dozen years, but seemed to attract professional occupants even then: the nearest neighbors to the greenhouse included a writer, engineer, teacher, and nurse. And the business thrived in its pristine location, and after just one year of starting their business, Gray and Erickson would construct a $1000 addition to the original structure.
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New Ownership
In 1913 the entire property was sold to a former employee of Gray Floral named Charles Franc.
Like his predecessors, Franc was a foreign-born florist who made good in this land. He came to the US amidst the worldwide Panic of 1893 from Bohemia and took possession of the entire eastern half of Harrison Street's 300 block.
Business boomed and in the early 1920s came a rapid-fire succession of greenhouse repairs and additions, including four new greenhouses, a garage and two new smoke stacks. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, the business was steadily growing, pulling permits for yet another 36' x 117' greenhouse in June 1931.
Larger economic and scientific forces were at work. Scientists discovered that carnations grown in Colorado offered superior longevity to those produced elsewhere, which caused an enormous expansion of the state's flower export trade. In 1927, Denver alone boasted 3 million square feet of greenhouses.
10 million carnations were shipped out of Denver in 1935. Not only that, but the city was overtaking the gardenia market throughout the West and developing rare roses such as the Scott Key which were produced only in Denver. Hardy strains of baby's breath, chrysanthemums, and lilies also became staples of the Denver florist's stock and trade.
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Third Avenue Florist
The business so firmly planted by Franz & Sons was transformed in October 1948, when the greenhouses were sold to Joseph G & Connie B Whitehouse. As proprietors of Third Avenue Florist, the Whitehouses and later Gordon Callbeck maintained the property's floral tradition into the second half of the twentieth century. As the Cherry Creek Dam and Cherry Creek Shopping Center turned the neighborhood toward commercial markets, Third Avenue Flower Shop and Greenhouse provided a larger showroom and a greater focus upon retail.
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Veldkamp’s Flowers
The modern era can be dated to the early 1970s, when a Dutch family took over this long-established greenhouse business. The Veldkamps started out in 1959 as a small floral shop in the Westland Shopping Center and business soon grew to encompass several other shops. By the 1970s, the Veldkamps were running retail outlets in every Target store (and several Albertson's branches) in Colorado under the name "Veldkamp's Dutch Flower Market." They needed more nurseries, and the space at 3rd and Harrison was a perfect fit.
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Grayson Place
In July 2005, Harrison Place LLC purchased the old Veldkamp Florist space with plans to seed new life in this old space. Where once there were beautiful flowers of every imaginable variety, soon there will be six new luxury homes in Cherry Creek, providing residents with mountain views and prime, central access to Denver and surrounding areas.
Just as the essence of birth lies in fertility, the heart of this new project lies in the rich soil of its florid past.
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Historical Overview
Provided by Historical Insights Inc. www.historicalinsights.com
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