Nostrand Park » Blog Archive » The Oldest Shops on Nostrand: First Stop

The Oldest Shops on Nostrand: First Stop – Barbara’s Flower Shop

Posted by LaurelB in Business, Local History on 11 11th, 2009

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With all of the new stores opening up in Crown Heights, we decided that we wanted to do a post celebrating some of the pioneer establishments in the neighborhood. Our focus – Nostrand Avenue. This post is the first in a three part series. Please note the way that we determined the oldest was completely informal and unscientific. We had a sense of what some of the older establishments were, so we started there, asking the owners about when they opened and if they knew what the oldest shop in the Crown Heights stretch of Nostrand in is. This series was developed from their answers. If anyone has any counter information, feel free to correct us.

A flower shop has stood at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Bergen Street since 1902. As fancy hat shops closed and bodegas, $.99 stores, and $5 nail salons opened, the flower shop has remained a constant presence at 615 Nostrand Avenue.

Over the years, however, the name and ownership has changed. In its current form, the flower shop is known as Barbara’s Flower Shop. Barbara’s Flowers is, by our estimation, the third oldest operating business on Nostrand, having opened in 1970 by American-born Fred Powell and his Jamaican-born wife, Barbara. Unfortunately neither Fred nor Barbara were available to speak with us when we stopped in, but we still had the pleasure of speaking with Fred’s brother Les, an MBA who prefers to spend his time holding down the family business and imparting local history (though he doesn’t actually live here).

“Did you know the famous opera singer, Maria Callas, and her family used to live right above this store?”

No, we didn’t but we were intrigued by the story.

“Yes, she was world famous, and she lived right here, right above the flowershop.”

As it turns out, we are not sure if it was in fact Maria Callas who used to live above the flower shop. We did a little research and could not find a Crown Heights connection to her. However, there was another world-renowned opera singer by the name of Beverly Sills, who was born and raised in Crown Heights. Perhaps it was she who lived above the flowershop so many years ago.

In any event, the Powells themselves do not actually live in Crown Heights. However, they cherish it like it’s their own neighborhood. They, along with some of the other veteran business owners on the Avenue, have been instrumental in the spearheading the Nostrand Avenue North Merchants Association (you may have noticed the NANMA banners on the light posts along Nostrand). Not only that, as Les proudly noted,”We have employed so much of the community over the years … And we work with a lot of the teens in the neighborhood. We make sure they are doing well in school if they are going to work here. Education is very important. It’s our legacy.”

For those who don’t know, Barbara’s Flower Shop has a website and they deliver. As always, we encourage everyone to support local businesses. And if you drop by, let us know what you thought.

P.S. Before we close out the post, we just wanted to make an honorable mention of Syl Williamson’s Legacy Awards, that served the community for over 45 years before it was forced to close earlier this year because of a rent increase (ironically though Legacy Award was forced to close after the landlord’s rent increase, the landlord is still has not been able to rent the space).

- As formidable as the rose that grew from concrete.