Flagstaff’s Sutcliffe Floral celebrates 75 years
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PostedSeptember 29, 2019
Kelly Tulloss stands in the prep area of her flower shop, Sutcliffe Floral. The business is celebrating 75 years of being a Flagstaff staple. A photograph of the storefront of the first location of the Sutcliffe Floral flower shop sits on top of a folder of newspaper clippings about the store from its 75 years as a Flagstaff staple. For 75 years, Sutcliffe’s flowers have been worn as crowns by brides and bridesmaids in Flagstaff weddings, have been placed bedside in vases for Flagstaff births, have been handed in wrapped bouquets to Flagstaff graduates and have donned the deceased with ornate casket sprays for Flagstaff funerals. In 1947, three years after the flower shop opened in Flagstaff, Muriel and Howard Sutcliffe were tasked with putting together flower arrangements for the funeral of Chee Dodge, first chairman of the Navajo Business Council who had been named the “Head Chief of the Navajo” by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. When two planes collided over the Grand Canyon in 1956, all 128 passengers on both flights died — the largest commercial airline crash up to that point. The Sutcliffe’s made all the casket sprays for the mass funeral service held in Flagstaff. Muriel wrote about how she and Howard started the shop “on a shoestring” during the war where her husband was doing a preliminary survey for what is now Camp Navajo in Bellemont. Having studied floriculture in college, Howard noted that Flagstaff’s 5,000 residents could use an official flower shop. “We rented a small space at 4 North Leroux. It was between Browwnie Cleaners and Ulrey’s Drug Store on the corner of Santa Fe and Leroux,” she wrote. “When the Ulrey’s wanted to enlarge their drug store we had to move. Since there wasn’t any vacant place to move in Flagstaff, Tony Souris offered to build us a small shop between the Safeway store and doctor’s offices on Birch Street.” “I have people ask me all the time, why would I go to a flower shop versus the grocery store?” she said. “What I always tell people is that we specialize […]
