ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—Years before anyone could go on a florist’s website, browse photos of pre-designed arrangements, and pop in a credit card number, there was a method of ordering that seems pretty foreign to us today—the telegraph.
Peter Duff & Sons, an Englewood florist, was a member of the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association. The accompanying advertisement for Duff’s is dated to Valentine’s Day of 1933.
Florists Telegraph Delivery Association—which still exists today under the familiar acronym FTD—became the country’s first flowers-by-wire service in 1910. It enabled a customer to order flowers by telegraph, using local florists in the recipient’s area to fulfill the order on the same day.
Another interesting part of this ad is the old style of phone number: Englewood 3-7500. In those days, connecting to another person’s telephone required the help of an operator.
Peter Duff first opened his flower business at 154 Tryon Ave., Englewood, back in 1920. He kept greenhouses on Tenafly Road. Born in Scotland, he had come to the United States at 18 years old and as a young man was the landscaping superintendent on the luxurious estate of John Crosby Brown in West Orange. After 30 years in that capacity, he had come to Englewood and opened a nursery.
Duff was one of the founders of the International Flower Show, held at the Grand Central Palace, an exhibition hall in Manhattan. After he passed away in 1938, his sons continued to run the business in Englewood for decades.
Five acres, with lots of fruit—A $9,000 Tenafly Estate on Sale, 1870
Printed in the Brooklyn Times Union newspaper 150 years ago, a classified from 1870 advertises property for sale in Tenafly. In those days, estates in the rural Northern Valley were marketed to New Yorkers, who could live in the country and commute to the city. For this reason, the ads typically mentioned the proximity of the railroad station. This house had nine rooms, stable, outbuildings and fruit trees on 5 acres. The cost to buy: $9,000.