Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
I27-1
Date(s)
- 1936 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
ca. 1936. Pioneer Northwest bulb grower George Lawler and his great grandchild. Mr. Lawler was born in 1861 and died in December of 1948 at the age of 87. He was a pioneer commercial bulb grower. He came to the Washington Territory at the age of two and drifted to Tacoma in 1888 with the lumber business. He later became involved in real estate and helped develop Tacoma's Tideflats. He began his bulb business in 1910 when he built his home in Gardenville, near Fife, and began experimenting with the daffodils, tulips and other flowers that he loved. He originally focused on the sale of the cut flowers and later became the first local farmer to sell his bulbs as a crop. He expanded with 383 acres near Roy, that were taken over in World War II for Fort Lewis expansion, and moved to 600 acres near Monroe, which he operated with his son George Ward Lawler. All acreage was dedicated to the growth of flower bulbs. (TNT 12/24/1948, pg. 1; "History of the Flower Bulb Industry in Washington State" by Charles J. Gould)
Lawler, George; Farmers--Tacoma--1930-1940; Lawler, George--Family;