Antique Salesman Ferry-Morse Seed Display. The dovetailed wood counter display includes every folding display rack. The display racks fold up & down to be stowed away. The seed package fronts included. Seeds not included. Nothing is missing.
The wood box is in excellent condition. It is an excellent piece of vintage home decor. Or it would make a great addition to the potting shed. It is really one of a kind piece.
When it is open the box sizes are 24″ X 11.5″ X 16″. When it is folded up and closed it is 24″ X 11.5″ X 16″ open.
The Ferry-Morse seed company has had links to Rochester and Avon Township for many years.
The Ferry seed company opened it’s seed breeding barns in Avon Township, South of Rochester, MI in 1902 having moved from Detroit where it had been founded in 1856. It was bounded by Rochester, Auburn, John R, and Hamlin Roads. The Ferry Seed co. focused on the home garden market, becoming the first such business to do so and sold their illustrated packages of seeds by commission sales through a network of retailers nationwide.
In 1930 it merged with one of their California suppliers and became the Ferry – Morse Seed Company.
In 1944, the company sold all of its property south of Hamlin Road to industrialist Howard L. McGregor Sr., who owned National Twist Drill, as well as the Great Oaks Stock Farm west of the village of Rochester. McGregor used the former seed farm to raise feed for his cattle at Great Oaks.
Ferry-Morse kept their experimental gardens on the North side of Hamlin Road until 1959 when they left Avon Township and relocated in California.
The Ferry-Morse Seed company has held a long time place in Rochester, MI with the remaining Ferry boarding house and cottages still existing on the North side of Hamlin Road.