Where Is It? Answer

The tall chimney on Rockwater Boulevard that's so easily seen from the Arkansas River Trail in North Little Rock burned coal* for the greenhouses of Jos. W. Vestal & Son, a florist, vineyard and orchard operation from the late-19th century through the 1960s. It was advertised as "the South's largest rose nursery."

Vestal sold fruit trees, bedding plants, vegetables, seeds, cut flowers ... everything from abutilon and artichokes to a special Southern mix of lawn-grass seeds. Vestal's roses shipped around the nation.

According to the University of Central Arkansas Archives' description of its Vestal Nursery Collection, and Cary Bradburn's 2004 history of North Little Rock, On the Opposite Shore, Joseph Wysong Vestal and wife Josephine began their nursery business in Indiana in the 1860s. In 1880, they moved to Arkansas, buying 68 acres in Baring Cross, prime farmland on the banks of the Arkansas.

At one point they owned 220 acres. Son Charles joined the business in 1893, eventually handing it off to his sons.

Vestal's employed 50 men and women on its farm, in greenhouses and the flower shop. It was the city's second-largest employer, behind the railroad. Coal was burned in the chimney to heat the greenhouses.

To see a digital replica of Vestal's spring 1925 catalog, go to archive.org/details/CAT31318288.

*CORRECTION: The historic Vestal smokestack burned coal to heat the garden company’s greenhouses. A previous version of this quiz had misinformation.

ActiveStyle on 07/02/2018