Lake County Nurseries

New York Resident Jesse Storrs built what was at one time America’s most prosperous and profitable nursery industry.  Beginning in 1858, Storrs purchased 80 acres of land, rich in sands and nutritious silt, gravel mixes as well as the heavier clay sediments, in Painesville, Ohio.  Later, he was joined by J.J. Harrison and together The Storrs and Harrison and Company would establish the Lake County Nursery Belt, the largest departmental nursery in the world. Plants grown included fruit trees, rose bushes, shade trees, and herbs. Today, this industry still thrives along state routes 20 and 84 in Lake County, Ohio and continues to provide incredible economic benefit to nursery growers in the area.