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History of the Chapel Hill Flower Ladies
by Charly Mann
The Flower Ladies of Chapel Hill were a common colorful sight along Franklin Street for more than five decades beginning in the late 1920s. They were a group of African American women who grew and sold flowers. Their flowers were arranged in plastic buckets filled with daisies, daffodils, marigolds, asters, sweet williams, lillies, roses, and cockscombs. The flowers were sold in bunches of one type or as a mixed bouquet. When I was small boy in the 1950s I remember buying bunches for my mother at 25 cents. By the early 1970s the price of a bunch was only a $1.00.
The Flower Ladies during the last year they were allowed to sell on Franklin Street, 1971
In the late sixties hippie merchants decided to imitate the flower ladies and sell a variety of items including used phonograph albums, leather goods, and drug paraphernalia along Franklin Street. Besides making the sidewalks narrower, local merchants, who were often paying more than a $1000 a month to rent store space on Franklin Street, were not happy with this new competition.
Initially the town council tried to stop these new sidewalk sellers by banning sales of anything but flowers along Franklin Street. The street sellers circumvented the new ordinance by “selling flowers” which would come along with “free” merchandise such as the clothing, records, or the hash pipes they had previously sold. As a the city had to ban all sidewalk sales on Franklin Street in 1971. Fortunately exemptions were made to allow the flower ladies to sell their wares in the passageway of NCNB Plaza and the alley a few stores east of the Varsity Theater. But Franklin Street was never the same again, and the number of flower ladies steadily declined. Also over the last couple of decades the few flower ladies who remained rarely grew their own flowers.
Comments:
Elaine Hobbs
9:16 AM Thu 6/3/2010
Just let me reiterate that I am very very proud of my family history with flowers. My cousin Bettye told me she also helped pick the flowers that went to Franklin Street. I also have a print of the painting of the Flower Ladies done by Nancy Cromwell.
Correction of the telephone number for BETTYE'S FLOWER DESIGN. That phone number is (919) 942-3864 NOT 3824
BETTYE'S FLOWER DESIGN
1621 PUREFOY DRIVE
CHAPEL HILL, NC 27516
(919) 942-3864
Elaine Hobbs
8:33 AM Thu 6/3/2010
I love the history of the Franklin Street Flower Ladies. I was very much a part of that history. Featured in the first black and white picture stands my mother Sarah E. Carter (former owner and opeator of Airport & N Town Taxi) along with my Aunt Rosa Bell Stone (deceased). Three of the ladies featured in the picture. with The Chancellor is my family. My great grandmother Ada Edwards (deceased) and two great aunts--Rosa Bell Stone (deceased) and Dorothy Farrington (living). When I was a young girl I assisted picking those daffodils, daisies, bachelor buttons, and marigolds that were placed in cans and buckets and brought to the town of Chapel Hill and sold. Yes, those were fun days for me as a kid. At the age of 12. I moved beside my Aunt Rosa Bell who planted fields of flowers.
The reason I know is because I too sold flowers with my Aunt Rosa. I was a little ashamed back then being a teenager, but at the age of 55 I am very very proud of my family's history with flowers. Even though the flowers have declined on Franklin Street, flowers continue to be a part of my family. My cousin Bettye
Jenkins (owner and operator) of BETTYE'S FLOWER DESIGN continues the flower business. Bettye is quite an artist when it comes to flower arrangements and design. Please visit Bettye's shop or call (919) 942-3824. Because I live away from home (Chapel Hill) I am always sending arrangements of flowers to family members and I call Bettye. So go by and visit this great lady's shop or call and place an order today.
Larry Howell
11:00 AM Mon 10/26/2009
I sorely miss the wonderful ladies and the beautiful flowers they sold. Yes, you can get a bouquet at the grocery store, which I do, but it is just not the same as it was when they were on Franklin Street. It added a touch of beauty and tranquility at a challenging time when I started UNC in 1966. I could not help but walk away with a bunch when I passed by them. Some of life's pastimes deserve to be permanent traditions, but, alas, life goes on; what a shame.
J. Marshall Chetlain
11:39 AM Mon 9/28/2009
Hello. Hope all is well in Blue Heaven. I lived in Chapel hill and Durham between 1975 and 1985. I remember the remaining flower ladies because I use to go through the old NCNB Plaza coming home from campus or jobs on Franklin Street. The article is accurate and brought back memories.
Joan McLean
10:08 AM Thu 6/11/2009
These are wonderful memories of these elegant women who I often purchased flowers from.
M Jardine
9:51 AM Wed 6/10/2009
Your photo sequence tells the entire story of the decline of the Flower Ladies.
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Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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I just met Lily Pratt, one of the original flower ladies, at the Bank of America at 137 E Franklin St. She apparently still sells flowers. I would suggest keeping your eye out every now and again. She is lovely and I am so happy that I learned about this part of Chapel Hill history. Thank you for sharing.