Editing Floral Park, New York (section)

==History==
The area that is now Floral Park once marked the western edge of the great [[Hempstead Plains]], and by some reports was initially known as Plainfield.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Floral Park|url=http://www.fpvillage.org/history/history.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202114022/http://www.fpvillage.org/history/history.htm|archive-date=2015-02-02|access-date=2015-01-20}}, "The History of Floral Park". Retrieved 12/22/08.</ref> Farms and tiny villages dominated the area through the 1870s when the development of the [[Long Island Rail Road]] [[Hempstead Branch]] and [[Jericho Turnpike]] cut through the area. Hinsdale had more than two dozen flower farms after the Civil War.<ref>[http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist001j,0,6393154.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation "Floral Park: Planting seeds for its growth"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415134406/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist001j,0,6393154.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation |date=2008-04-15 }}, ''Newsday.'' Retrieved 12/30/07.</ref> The present-day village of Floral Park was once called East Hinsdale.<ref>Weidman, B.S. (1981) ''Nassau County, Long Island, in Early Photographs, 1869-1940''. Courier Dover Publications, pg 49.</ref>

In 1874, [[John Lewis Childs]] arrived in the area to work for C.L. Allen as a seed seller. After building his own seed and bulb business<ref>[http://www.fpvillage.org/history/old_seed_house.htm A Picture of the John Lewis Childs Seed Company] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319071337/http://www.fpvillage.org/history/old_seed_house.htm |date=2009-03-19 }} Retrieved April 10, 2009.</ref> and starting America's first seed catalog business, Childs bought a great deal of land in the area. To promote his own business and the local [[horticultural]] industry, Childs named the local streets after flowers and renamed the area Floral Park. The expansion of the Floral Park Post Office and nearby village businesses are attributed solely to the success of Childs' business.<ref>Ross, P. (1903) ''History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time'', pg. 247.</ref>

When the local Post Office took the name Floral Park, the [[Long Island Rail Road]] followed suit by changing the name of the East Hinsdale station to Floral Park in 1888. Formerly part of [[Queens]], Floral Park became part of the new county of Nassau in 1899, and it was incorporated as a village in 1908. Childs served as its first president starting that year.<ref>[http://www.fpvillage.org/history/history.htm The history of Floral Park] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202114022/http://www.fpvillage.org/history/history.htm |date=2015-02-02 }}, Village of Floral Park. Accessed September 15, 2007.</ref>

In 1903, the village boasted more than {{convert|200|acre|km2}} of Childs' flower beds. The massive volume of his mail order business grew the local post office to such an extent that it drew comparisons with the post offices of Chicago, Baltimore, and Boston.<ref>Ross, P. (1903) ''History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time'', pg. 248.</ref>