Details For Cover ID# 25727

1890 issue small American Bank Note 2c carmine (#220) 2X and 8c lilac (#225) tied by incomplete star in circle cancels with "Point Blank Tex. Jan 16 1895" circular datestamp, on registered cover to Floral Park, New York, N.Y. Purple "Missent./ (N.Y. - Reg. Div.)" handstamp. On reverse is purple NYC carrier circular marking "B 1 21 95".  

The 8 cent value stamp was issued because the registry fee was reduced from 10 cents to 8 cents effective January 1, 1893.

History of the addressee: 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 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. 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 the borough of Queens, Floral Park became part of the new county of Nassau in 1898, and it was incorporated as a village in 1908. Childs served as its first president starting that year.

In 1903 the village of Floral Park boasted more than 200 acres 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.

Source: "History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" by P. Ross, 1903.