OLD TOWN FLORIST
ALSO KNOWN AS
Old Town Flowers, Gifts & Sweet Shoppe
135 W Burnside 223-1646
Started by Walter W Cole in 1971
Sold to Richard Calhoun. He changed the name to Richard Calhoun’s Old Town Florist
And move it to 308 SW Alder 223-1646
Richard passed in 1995
Presently resides at 404 Northwest 10th Avenue LL1 Portland, OR, 97209 223-1646
Ad to the RIGHT was in 1976 Los Conquistadores Coronation and El Cid III Contest program
Above two photos are from the 1977 Portland-based film Passion In The Willows.
Per “Looking from my mirror” by donnie and Walter W Cole, “We opened Old Town Flowers – Gifts & Sweet Shoppe at the corner of 2nd and Burnside – across from Erickson’s Saloon (also known as Erickson's Workingman's Club).
Crazy as it seems now, we leased the space next to it going down Second and opening a little sandwich shop “The Green Leprechaun”. The street slopes down a bit, but it was all one location. Inside we had tables with umbrellas, just like you were sitting outside. We didn’t have a way to vent out to make dinners, but we made sandwiches, soups, and sandwiches along with coffee and cold drinks. Luckily, I had Mary and Ruth running that along with Greg Bear.
The flower shop was fun to do. In it, I made various areas; one where we talked to potential couples about weddings, another which we called the little red and white candy area. In the center, I put a big cement 4-tiered fountain where we displayed our live plants, and lastly a space where we sold some jewelry. I had one full-time employee, Miss Terri – she was a great floral designer and later Brian “Bernie” Sanford. I had a friend build a Dutch door – you know the one that is cut in the middle where the top could be swung open and still keep the bottom closed? I thought that would be kinda neat because on nice days we could keep the top open. We’d have people come in and wander around, “Oh, it’s a beautiful store.” They’d never buy anything – we should have charged admission.
Okay, I had two employees, Roxy was our delivery person. At the time, we had a suburban and after working sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning, we’d get up early around 6, and head over to the flower market and sometimes head to Seattle to their market. Oh, and we bought a wicker sleigh – man size and put it in the Burnside window and filled it full of stuff. We worked like that for three years – but when you approach 45, your motor starts saying, ‘slow down’. Especially when during Christmas or Mother’s Day you have to make and deliver 8,000 little bouquets through orders from Tele-Florist or FTD Florists. Always using their packaging and of course, they got the larger percentage of the sale. Don’t forget the fruit baskets – bouquets and fruit baskets – that’s all you could see – after a while, you wanted the holidays over with and fast – then what happens, another holiday. And remember the shows were getting hot and you can’t place your priorities everywhere – you have to focus on what your true passion is – mine was at the club.
Oh, I remember this one time Roxy went with this expensive fruit basket, I think it was like $100 and he was to deliver it to a retirement home in NW Portland – ordered for this person, by a relative back east. Roxy rings the bell, and the woman answers. “I have a delivery for…” And before he could even talk, the woman took one look at the basket and then at Roxy and said, “Why the fuck did she send me a fruit basket? What am I to do with that? Why didn’t she just send me the money? There are five bananas in there. I can’t eat all those bananas.” Roxy said that he could take it only for so long and he finally said, “Hey, I know nothing about who sent it to you and why. I’m just here to deliver it to you. SO TAKE THE DAMN THING!” And, he left.
The shop wasn’t just about bouquets and fruit baskets, though that’s what it seemed most of the time. We had wonderful indoor plants – and we did a pretty good business with them as well. There was a pretty good deal on philodendrons – beautiful. Of course, indoor plants have to be cared for, you know water, checked over for dead leaves, the right amount of light, and bugs. Every damn one of those philodendrons got bugs! Thank God it wasn’t our fault, we returned them to the flower market and got our money back. I turned to Roxy, “This has been fun, but a lot of work. We can’t keep this up, we either give up the club or this.”
You begin to notice the bottom line is lower than you think, you work yourself to death and you finally say – enough. It was easy, we were keeping the club and we sold it to Dick Calhoun who would be our 1977 Emperor III. We’d miss going to New York to the gift shows that was a lot of fun – meeting a lot of people and buying a lot of stuff. You know, what Dick didn’t want we brought home. Like our home wasn’t full enough. Who said we couldn’t just go to New York – right?”
Ad LEFT in Cascade Voice, January 28,1983; Ad below RIGHT in October 14, 1983, Cascade Voice.
Per website: Present day Old Town Florist
https://oldtownflorist.blogspot.com/
OLD TOWN FLORIST IS LOCATED IN THE PEARL DISTRICT IN PORTLAND OREGON. ESTABLISHED IN 1976 BY RICHARD CALHOUN, WENDI DAY HAS WORKED, MANAGED, AND NOW OWNS THE FLORAL BUSINESS. WE ARE DEDICATED TO PROVIDING FLOWER DELIVERIES ONLY THE GREATER PORTLAND METRO AREA. [The possible reason they state it was established in 1976, is that Richard changed the name.]