Photo cutline: Neill's Flowers and Gifts when it had a fountain and grill besides flowers ... And, now, with new owner Mitch Chandler (left) and retiring proptieter Greg Neill.
Longtime family business changing ownership
Pullman Herald Wed. March 29, 1978
By MITCH DION
Herald Intern
One of the oldest businesses in Pullman is changing hands this week. Nell’s Flower and Gift shot is being sold after nearly 70 years under the Neill name.” I guess I’ve been in this business long enough it’s time to try something new,” Gregory Neill said.
Neill’s father, Roy, started the business in 1910, as a greenhouse on Military Hill between Lark and Charlotte Streets.
“It was called Cougar View Greenhouse, and my dad would make daily deliveries to Dutton’s Candy Store on Main Street where people could buy fresh flowers.” Neill explained that Dutton’s was located about where Creighton’s Men Store is presently.
In 1920 his father bought the present store which was a confectioner’s shop. From 1920to 1940 it served as a combination fountain, grill and flower shop. “Prior to 1940 it was the only real fountain in town and all the kids from the university would come down.”
Neill and his brothers and sisters spent a good deal of their young years working in the store.” We made all our own candy and ice cream -- it was tough work, he recalled.
In 1940 the building was remodeled, the fountain and grill closed and the name changed from Neill’s Sweet Shop to Neill’s Flowers and Gifts.
Neill said his father was facing stiffer competition from other fountains downtown,” and besides, he was running out of kids at home to run it.”
Having children around the store has become a family tradition, however. The Neill’s have four children, and they all grew up spending many hours with their folks at the store.
Neill spent several years at WSU in the thirties, and then five years in the Navy in World War II, serving in the Pacific. He returned to Pullman in 1945 and went into the family business. He and his wife, Tillie, have been running the store since 1957, when his father retired.
The elder Neill lives in Panorama City, near Olympia, but usually visits Pullman each summer. “When he visits the store he tells us how they used to do everything different, or he’ll go around gasping at the prices,” Neill laughed.
Neill is selling out to Mitch Chandler and his wife Mari Jo, “because he wants it, I guess.” Chandler promises to keep the business basically the same. Neill will stay in Pullman and go into business with his brother-in-law, who owns Franz Realty.
The Neill family has been in Pullman for a long time. Thomas Neill, Gregory’s grandfather came in the 1880’s and is considered one of the town fathers. Except for his time in the service, Gregory has spent his whole life here. Asked if he would ever leave, he said, “Sometime I might, but it’s a pretty good town, really.”