Back before 1930, the trolley line from Burlington ended at the roller skating rink about a quarter of a mile down North Avenue to the south. Down the road at a short distance to the north was the S.W. Thayer School which had been built about 1900. The Farrington property itself was a farm, growing vegetables in a large truck garden for a roadside stand. There was also a nursery and greenhouses which supplied most of the flowers used in the florist's business family members had established in the late 1920s.

The first of the Farrington family to appear in the Burlington City Directory is George Farrington, Sr. who settled on North Avenue around 1886 to start a dairy farm. He bought approximately 85 acres and built a large farmhouse, barn, creamery and other outbuildings.3 At the turn of the century he also started to sell granite monuments. This additional business continued until his retirement in about 1916.4