#8~ Studio City Palms ~ HERE We Come !

Description:
This is a page for Fans/Customers/Family/Employees/Neighbors of Steven's Hardware + Nursery that filled our lives with Beauty, friendship, family and work for many years. It was a HUGE Respected Landmark in the San Fernando Valley that I wish to "Live ON" in our memories on these pages and the blog website that is being created for it. If you have a good memory to share please do so here by leaving a comment, and if you have more to share please email us, at
"stevens nursery at g mail dot com"

 ♥ May your flowers bloom and your memories last. ♥

Gen. Info :
The prices are now Heavenly.
The Memories are Priceless.
The 4 Steven Brothers were Visionaries.
The ONLY color was GREEN.
May the many gardeners they helped and
the Palms along Ventura Blvd they planted in
Studio City "STILL Stand TALL as a Testament"
to the BEST Nursery to the Stars...
and ALL Quality plant lovers in "The Valley."

Some STILL STAND in front of 
our Beloved "Art's Deli" ♥

http://www.artsdeli.com 818-762-1221

Public transit:

...and they are building a stairway to heaven,

and guess who is Landscaping it ?

                          ~ circa 1980 ~


                    ~  photo in 2010 ~

Please NOTICE the difference in the HEIGHT of 

the Palm Trees in the 2 pictures ....

They are now Towering OVER the Buildings...

#7~ and SO it IS ;)

OK, I can't hold this part back any
longer...The Riverside version of the
nursery after the Mellenthin model
home for the local tract finally got
relocated and what I personally
consider Steven's Nursery has been
established and available for your
tranquility and nature shopping
pleasure..and The business cards
have been printed.
















and the Gates "ARE" Open....
"Come on IN".....
Once the morning racks have
been put out front then you KNOW
the nursery is Open for business
and you are FREE to wallow in the
beauty of all of the BEST that Mother
Nature has provided, cuz that's the
ONLY version that Steven's Nursery
made available for your purchase.

Many box stores carried the "Brand B"
version of plants, but Steven's only
carried the "Grade A" Quality specimens
and I even traveled 300 miles to get
the BEST and Every purchase was
ALWAYS Perfect and I never regretted
any of my choices...
The help and advice of all of the
gracious and knowledgable employees
made me always feel Secure that I was
getting "just what I wanted and would
serve my purposes exactly~ and they did.

Maybe this image will jog a few
memories for you ~
as you use to drive by,
or KNOW where to stop and shop ;)















There was NOT another place to go for
Spring Annual or Perennial plants, the
BEST Place in the Oct to go for Fall bulb
to plant, and Let's not forget the
beautiful Christmas goodies such as
the Ecke's Poinsettias and their other
holiday decorations and wreaths.
during the rest of the year you always
had the aroma of beautiful roses to
enjoy or the refreshing cool beauty
of the greenhouse and bonzai garden
to "send you" to another place and
time ~ even for just a short while.
It was truly a Magical Place. ♥♥♥
I Sincerely Hope YOU also have some
of these same memories....

#6~ Nothing's Official Until....

Nothing is Official until you are paying
taxes....on it as they say.

I neglected to add this photo..
whole Certificate would have been
too large to make legible so here's the
most important part of it..
This was for what we now call
Sales Tax or a Retail Sales License.











So this PROVES we were
REALLY "Legit" now, and considered
part of the LA County ;)










"Thirty-Eight YEARS of Minutes"

Although, first Opening for Business
in 1941, and operating as a
PARTNERSHIP, for the first 18 years,
MINUTES have only been kept since
INCORPORATION in 1959.
Following are some of the HIGHLIGHTS
from the MINUTES of Steven Brothers
Board of Directors meetings,
from 1959 to 1997.














(PS: Can you Believe it ?
38 years of Minutes by
4 Irish Brothers that didn't Argue?)

#5~ Changes as they come...

Eventually we passed the Lake San Marcos
Branch on to the brother Bob's son, Bob Jr.,
and Wes and Bob returned returned to
Laurel Canyon location.

We had now divested ourselves of all
of the preceding drivel.

So now there is only the Riverside Drive
location so we decided to give it our all.

We had started out as a Partnership,
but later formed a Corporation.

We even sent out Holiday Postcards
to locals to promote the Holiday Sales.













So now there is only the Riverside Drive
location so we decided to give it our all.

We drew straws for officers, resulting in

• James as President
• Wes as V.P.
• Bob as Secretary
• Bill as Treasurer

I occupied the Office (in real Life),
Bill ran the Hardware store,
Wes was in Charge of the Nursery-Yard,
and Bob did the Landscaping.
It worked out OK ;)

#4~ as They say: "We've Got it Covered"

Well, one certainly HAS to say that the
Steven's Brothers
were definitely an industrious group ~
~ a trait of the "Greatest Generation
from WW2 days."

per Jim~ continued from another article:



" We HAD it Covered."

Over the years, we have Opened and operated (and closed)

• Five additional nurseries
• a family shoe store in Downtown Los Angeles
• a second shoe store in San Diego (sold one and closed the other 2 years later)
• a sporting goods store selling outboard motors and boats as a side-line
• two tool rental programs
• a drug store complete with pharmacists and a counter serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• a complete lawnmower sales and repair shop

In addition to selling plants , we have sold:

• televisions in their early day
• pet supplies at the Laurel Canyon location
• landscaping services providing plans and installation
• sand, gravel, brick and delivered top-soil.

We tried to keep everybody busy...
~ not only to keep a roof
over THEIR heads ;)

#3~ drugs, meals and shoes? Oh MY !!!

continued from Jim Steven ~

We THEN Became REALLY Adventurous
and Purchased the Pharmacy next to
Vic's Market (Groceries) on the NE corner
of Laurel Canyon and Riverside Drive.
We operated the drug store that also
offered counter meals~
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner !
After a few years of this
we sold to one of our pharmacists.



I neglected to include a very interesting
(to us) bit of activity we that we got
caught up in,
Ladies SHOES~ Large sizes ONLY.

Bob's Father-in-law owned and operated
such a store in downtown Los Angeles
for many years. When he died, we took
over the operation for the widow and
eventually OPENED a branch in San Diego.
The stores were called "Rushton's Shoes"
and had a HUGE following of ladies
with wide feet.
This was BEFORE everyone wore sneakers.
These stores were Bill's babies.
We eventually sold to
our principal vendor, Jerry Siegal.

#2~ we expanded...

continued from Jim Steven~

Thru friends of the developer we OPENED
a Nursery and Landscaping/Maintainance
branch in a new development at
Lake San Marcos in San Diego County.
Wes and Bob bought homes in the new
area and moved, Bill and I remained
here.

We OPENED a Material Yard at the
Laurel Canyon location, a rent-a yard,
acquired a skip-loader and a dump truck
and delivered sand, gravel, cement,
brick,cement-block, rented
-mixers, trailers, etc.

We also moved a building onto the
frontage and OPENED a
Sporting Good's Business and sold
boats, and outboard motors. We added
a pet shop, sold early TV's pool supplies,
OPENED a Sales and Service Lawn
Mower Shop and added a Greenhouse.

#1~ The Beginning

As recalled by James C. Steven, 2010.

In 1941, our family, the Stevens, and
the Wildings OPENED the "Steven-Wilding
Nurseries."

The doors opened for Business when we
found an affordable location on
4724 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in
North Hollywood.

~ Laurel Canyon circa 1941-Where Gelson's is NOW !

 
It was 120 by 300 feet deep and had a
12 by 24 foot building that had been a floral shop and rented for $30 a month.
equal partners our available capital
was about $6,000.00, so inventory
was sketchy.

The nursery was able to secure credit
with Bandini, Germain's, Sovett's,
Monrovia and American Hardware.
nursery celebrated it's First $100 day
with drinks and a steak!

During the WW2, business was good,
but stock was scarce or in short supply.
Three of us Steven Brothers were in
the Navy during those war years, and
the fourth Steven boy was in defense.
As the war wound-down and the boys
exited the service, we opted to join
the family business. We drew $40 a
week for about 60 hours and paid help
(very little help) 60-85 cents an hour.

About 1946, Walt Wilding, who had
no brothers or children decided to
leave and start up his own
Wilding Nurseries. Walt was an
alumnus of Armstrong Nursery in
North Hollywood and Armstrong's
Roof Garden Nursery in downtown
Los Angeles. Walt is probably the
most knowledgeable nursery person
I know, and was the only experienced
person in our fledgling company.
We dropped the Wilding name from
our logo and soldiered on with
the knowledge that we had gained
from Walt.

~ Laurel Canyon, circa 1960's ~

We operated the business on
Laurel Canyon for 24 years and during
that span of time we OPENED and
a nursery on Van Nuys Blvd near
Ventura Blvd.,

OPENED a Nursery on Lankershim Blvd.
near Oxnard Blvd., later trading our
lease for a nice 2 story hardware
building at the Laurel Canyon location,
bought one small nursery in Granada
Hills ~later sold to our Manager,
built a very nice installation in the
New Fritz Burns Development of
Panorama City, years later giving way
to the expansion of our next-door
neighbor, a medical facility.
We built a new branch on Sherman Way
Sepulveda Blvd. We operated there for
a number of years, then settled with the
developers to give up the location...
TOO valuable for the nursery to use.