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CLAY COUNTY THROUGH THE YEARS: Cottage Hill Greenhouse Company and Lambert Greenhouses at Cottage Hill
In 1923 The Cottage Hill Greenhouse Company was located at Cottage Hill, west of the city on State Road 340. They were well stocked with vegetables, ferns, flowers, shrubs, etc. December 1923 was their Grand Opening. They had three glassed, roofed greenhouses. There was an office and sales building with considerable parking space for automobiles. At the rear of the offices were a unit of the green houses, and to the east were two more greenhouses. They had a commodious boiler room, pump well, and an air pressure tank to supply the pressure for the system.
In 1945 Ray Lee Lambert took over the greenhouses, and they became Lambert Greenhouses at Cottage Hill. This was shortly after he had added Maurer’s Greenhouses on the Water Works Road. The Cottage Hill Greenhouses had been completely remodeled and enlarged by 1952. The greenhouse space was double that of the original plant. Mr. Lambert started building and improving at the back and worked forward until he completed the remodeling of the flower shop and office. Everything, except the cement floor of the building was new. The outside walls were beige Arketex tile trimmed with a rich chocolate-colored ware from the same plant.
Large new windows provide plenty of light for those working inside the shop and give passerby’s “an eyeful” of attractive displays in the shop. The interior of the shop was tastefully arranged with wall displays of planters and other receptacles for flowers as well as various types of floral arrangements.
The conservatory to the east of the shop was full of planters. At various holidays it was filled with appropriate plants.
Directly to the north of the shop were the three original greenhouses. To the east of these greenhouses were the outside cold frames where tulip, jonquil, and hyacinth bulbs were bedded in leaves.
Visitors to Lambert’s Greenhouses had the opportunity to see a colorful array of growing, blooming plants. The average person did not realize that a lot of planning goes into greenhouse work. It takes a lot of planning in advance to have the proper temperature and admit the right amount of light for the flowers.
Ray had operated a flower shop at the old Lark Theater building for twenty-five years. In late 1957, they closed this shop and moved everything to the Cottage Hill Shop on West State Road 340.
Ray L. Lambert was born April 13, 1905, in Clay County, the son of Junius L. Lambert and Anna Mauer. He graduated from Indiana University School of Business in 1928. Ray married Elizabeth Isaacs; she passed in 1950. They were the parents of a daughter, Carolyn. Ray later married Anna Warren. After retiring from his Greenhouses, he was an officer of the “First Federal Savings and Loan” Brazil, Indiana. Ray died October 24, 1991, in Bloomington, Indiana. Ray, Elizabeth, and Anna were all buried at Cottage Hill Cemetery.