A flower shop stood for 66 years at the corner of North Grand Avenue and Northwood Drive in Ames until Dec. 10, when Mary Kay’s Flowers and Gifts was torn down after being closed permanently in mid-August.
The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the business that had been owned by Mary Kay and Alan Abbott since 1974. When the youngest of her four children started to school, Mary Kay went to work three days a week for Edith Van Voorhis, who owned the shop with her husband, Stanley.
“I started working there in 1967 and worked part-time until we bought the business in 1974,” Mary Kay Abbott said.
The business was not in the city limits at that time, but Ames officials were looking at annexing that area, she said.
“Stanley Van Voorhis heard about a greenhouse that was being torn down and sold in Estherville, so he went there and bought it and hauled it back to Ames,” Abbott said.
When the Abbotts bought the business, it consisted of that glass greenhouse with a shed on each end, “and the whole thing was painted a light green.”
But, “not long after we bought the business, we had a terrible hailstorm,” Abbott said. “It knocked out all the glass on the south side of the building. And it broke up the fiberglass on the north side of the building. It was like a sieve.”
The Abbotts decided that rather than repairing the greenhouse, they would put a permanent roof on the structure and turn it into a flower and gift shop.
For decades, Mary Kay’s Flowers and Gifts was the charming yellow building on the east side of North Grand.
Abbott recalls in the early years, they sold many macrame hangars and green plants.
“It was all the rage back then,” she said. “People were really starting to have houseplants for the first time.
“We just sold the heck out of macrame hangers. We had a young college student who macramed the hangers and we sold so many, I think it must have really helped put her husband through college.”
The Abbotts continued to see the trends change over the decades, and they both loved attending trade shows to stay on top of the floral trends, Mary Kay said. They also enjoyed keeping an up-to-date selection of gifts and collectibles in many price points, including some high-end items.
In December of 2015, the Abbotts’ daughter Melanie Cornwell and granddaughter Danielle Cornwell opened a cafe at Mary Kay’s.
The Garden Cafe’s menu featured pastries like almond and chocolate chip biscotti and a cranberry lime scone. The cafe also provided soups, salads and daily specials for lunch, as well as desserts like lemon chiffon cake and strawberry rhubarb. For lunch, the cafe was known for dishes such as its house-made chicken salad and almond chicken rice casserole.
During the pandemic, the flower shop and cafe continued to offer flower delivery and some curbside service, but on Aug. 17, the business posted to its Facebook page: “Following all the recent life changing events, we have decided it is time to close our business.”
It was a hard decision to close, she said. Due to the pandemic, the shop and cafe closed without the fanfare that would be expected for an iconic Ames business.
“There are so many great memories,” Abbott said. “It’s the kind of business that you just have to put your whole heart into because of the nature of the business and why people buy flowers.”
“I’m just so grateful that I had that opportunity,” Abbott continued. “We are so thankful for all the customers and employees. I’ve always been so grateful for being able to be in business in Ames, where I grew up and where Alan grew up.”
The Link LonkDecember 23, 2020 at 03:48AM
https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2020/12/22/ames-mainstay-mary-kays-flower-shop-building-torn-down-after-covid-19-slows-business/6538969002/
End of an era: Mary Kay's flower shop in Ames is torn down - Ames Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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