14. Urbanization and Suburbanization Alters Agriculture

The popular City Beautiful movement in the early twentieth century promoted beautification of town and cityscapes, as well as monumental grandeur in architecture. This movement inspired the creation of city parks and landscaped streets and sidewalks, increasing demand for ornamental plants and flowers grown in nurseries.

Responding to this demand, in 1911, William Flemer began amassing land in Mapleton, just south of Princeton’s recently completed Carnegie Lake, to open a wholesale nursery. The site featured rich soil and was a stone’s throw from railroad and canal facilities, setting the stage for Princeton Nurseries’ meteoric rise. In the decades that followed, Princeton Nurseries grew to become the largest wholesale nursery in the world. Flemer also developed the Kingston Water Company, providing water not only for the nursery but also for the village of Kingston.

New Jersey’s booming population growth after World War II provided even more consumers for Flemer’s operations. Increased demand for housing and the suburban ideal of the “American Dream” spurred the conversion of New Jersey’s agricultural land to housing developments. These developments’ manicured lawns required nursery products, such as young trees, shrubs, and decorative plants, making the nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod industry the state’s leading agricultural sector today. This industry continues to grow rapidly, and ranks fifth in the nation.

The story of Princeton Nurseries and New Jersey’s nursery industry illustrates both how agriculture impacted its landscape, influencing water infrastructure, and how the suburbanizing landscape impacted agriculture, shifting the availability of agricultural land and influencing demand for certain agricultural products.