A 110-year-old business in Carlisle will close it doors permanently.
The last day for Georges Flower Shop at 101 G St. Carlisle will be on Saturday.
Doug George, the great-grandson of the founders William Smith George and his wife Jane said that after his father, Jimmie George’s passing in December, the business continued to be operated by the business’s 12 employees with the assistance of the family but George and his three siblings and his mother, Rosalie made the “difficult decision” to close the business.
William Smith George, a gardener who managed a large estate in Scotland like his father moved with his wife Jane to the United States, first living in Boston before settling in Carlisle in the late 1890s. They purchased a home at G and Northwest streets.
In the back of their house they purchased some greenhouses to place behind their house and William Smith George opened the business with his sons in 1910. The first shop was attached to their home. Numerous family members through the generations worked at the business. The family later moved the flower shop to its current home nearby to Pitt and G Streets in 1949.
Eventually, J. Duff and Ruth Kruger George, Doug George’s grandparents became partners in the business. Their children, Jimmie George and his sister Nancy George ran the business for most of the past 40 years. Nancy George died a few years ago.
The photo shows Georges’ Flowers property in Carlisle around 1970. (Photo provided)
The business once employed 40 to 50 people in the 60s, 70s and 80s and included two acres of greenhouses near the flower shop, according to George.
The greenhouses is what made Georges Flower Shop unique by growing their own flowers and plants, George said.
“Our family over the generations prided themselves working very hard to deliver a creative product, we wanted every arrangement to be as unique as possible,” he said.
George said that he and his siblings all worked in the greenhouses and in the retail shop growing up.
“We had the excitement of working the holidays and there were usually a lot of hours but it was very satisfying,” he said.
In later years, the greenhouses were torn down as economically it made more sense to purchase flowers from South America rather than grow their own flowers.
As adults, George and his siblings had the opportunity to help out on holidays as well but at this point in their lives taking on the flower shop was not in the cards for any of the siblings.
And while many businesses have been forced to close in the last few months due to COVID-19 and its impact on small businesses and the economy, George said that COVID-19 was not the reason for the closing.
“I think every business has been affected by COVID-19 but it was not the reason that we decided to close the flower shop,” he said.
George said the flower shop has been doing a contactless business and said the shop “had a reasonably good Mother’s Day.”
George said that the flower business is a special business. He said that his father always said that they were “a cut flower arrangement florist for average people.” But George said that the business also did a lot of wedding and funeral work as well.
“The flower shop is a very special kind of business,” he said. “Your connecting people’s emotions more than a typical business. When you bring flowers to their doors you’re there because your expressing happiness. Your someone’s messenger to bring happiness but also it could be sympathy or solace. When you were at the door of someone’s house you always felt welcome and you can see the expressions on people’s faces.”
George said his family is both grateful for both the generations of customers as well as the many employees who worked at the business, some who worked at the business for as many as 60 years.
“We had many, many fine employees over the 110-year period,” he said. “In fact we had many multi-generational employees. It was like a big family.”
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The Link LonkAugust 05, 2020 at 09:46PM
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/08/it-was-like-a-big-family-110-year-old-flower-shop-to-close.html
110-year-old Pa. flower shop to close: ‘It was like a big family’ - PennLive
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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