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Southern California Flower Market Papers
90.26  
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Collection Overview
 
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Description
The Southern California Flower Market Papers consists primarily of financial and legal documents pertaining to the tax exempt status of the corporation. The collection also includes documents created by Golden Sky Investment Company in relation to the Southern California Flower Market.
Background
The floral industry has a long history in California, beginning in 1886 in Oakland, California with the commercial growth of chrysanthemums. In the early twentieth century flower growth and sales began to take root in downtown Los Angeles, shaping what would one day become an epicenter for floral sales around the world. The first nursery opened in Los Angeles on West Jefferson and shortly after the first wholesale floral market opened, Vawter Carnation Fields, at 522 South Spring Street. At this time, Los Angeles was largely a farming community with a population below 100,000. The center of floral sales in the city was downtown at First Street, Second Street, and Spring Street. Flower growers would travel by the electric railway system with bundles of flowers to sell in downtown Los Angeles. By 1910 Los Angeles had 38 retail florists, including five owned by Japanese immigrants while an additional 30 to 40 Japanese flower growers informally sold their flowers outdoors on South Broadway near Sixth Street.
Extent
.50 linear feet 3 artifacts
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).
Availability
By appointment only. Please Contact the Collections Management and Access Unit by email (collections@janm.org) or telephone (213-830-5615).