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Flower Shop in Andover? 

Below is a photo submitted by William A. Greene titled, "Flower Shop, Unknown ca.1911" 

flower_shop_andover_1911

 And now, the rest of the story:

 

UNKNOWN PHOTO, NOW KNOWN, by William A. Greene

 

In the fall of 2011 a photo arrived stating that is was a photo of a flower and studio shop, somewhere in Andover.  The village was searched for anything that looked like the house in the photo, but nothing turned up.  The photo was sent to the Allegany County Historical Society’s web site and posted, hoping that someone might recognize a house that we might have over looked.  No one responded.  Finally around the first of December 2011, a young lady from Andover sent a letter stating where she thought this house stands. She stated her reason’s for believing this.

After reading her letter, I replied stating the reason’s why it wasn’t that house.  A few letters were sent back and forth stating our thoughts, when she asked the age of another building here in Andover.  I had no clue, so I got my books out and started looking.  While doing so I came across a story about a home that was going to be torn down that once was a flower shop and photo studio and then made into an apartment house.  This aroused my curiosity, this sounded too good to be true.

I got my photo albums out and found the photo I was looking for.  Then compared it to the unidentified photo and there it was.  They were the same building.

A man by the name of Edwin Everett had this house built at some point in the mid to late 1800’s. It had a green house on one end and his studio and home on the other.  When he had finished his business and retired, he sold the house to a Patrick Hyland, who remodeled it and made it into an apartment building. He took the green house section out and moved the end wall in.  If you look at the photo’s you can see what he did.In Sept. of 1962 the Andover Grange Organization purchased the apartment building and had it torn down to make room for a parking lot for their Grange Hall.No wonder I couldn’t find a house like that, it was torn down almost 50 years ago.Thank you, Sara Johannes for getting the ball rolling. If you hadn’t asked questions, we might have never known the story.

 

And the more recent image below:

 

patrick_hyland_greenwood_st

 

Thanks for an interesting happening!!