A Plymouth business is celebrating 160 years of doing business with an afternoon open house. Felke Florist is in it’s fifth generation of family ownership. Chris Fekle says his Great-Great Grandma “Flower Mary” Felke was the original entrepreneur and was recorded as the first female florist in Chicago.
“She would gather wildflowers in the fields that surrounded the train stations, and she originally started selling them to the passengers who got on and off of the trains. After a number of years of doing so, she then gained some contracts to provide flowers for lobbies of hotels and also hotel rooms,” Felke said.
That led to the establishment of several greenhouses in Wilmette, which is on the north shore of Chicago. They were destroyed in a fire in 1890, and there was not insurance to cover the loss. Felke says that’s when his grandmother moved first to Elkhart and then to their current Plymouth location in 1922. Felke and his sister now run the business. He attributes its longevity to customer service and attention to detail, such as providing specific inspiration for a meaningful funeral piece, getting deliveries out on time and having “fantastic, creative employees” who can listen to what the customer wants and translate it into flowers.
Felke says the business is dedicated to meeting the varied needs of everyone who walks through its doors.
“People every day come in and want to express either sympathy or love or joy or whatever the occasion or sentiment is. There’s really no other business like it. You can in one day see a customer that has lost a parent and two hours later you’ll have a customer that has had a baby, and another hour later you’ll have someone who’s celebrating an anniversary. So flowers really, truly do speak volumes, and they really express what words sometimes cannot.”
Felke Florist is hosting an open house from 4 until 7 p.m. today to say thank you to the community for the years of support. They are located at 627 S. Michigan Street in downtown Plymouth.
