Floristan and Waldran avenues were named in 1910 on the Floristan Heights tract, owned by Augusta Johnson (1860-1942) and her husband Dr. Albert Sidney Johnson (1862-1936). This I can tell you: before moving to Eagle Rock, the Johnsons had spent several years in Memphis, TN, where they resided on… Waldran Avenue (now Boulevard), itself probably named after an old Memphis family. So that mystery is solved. As for the source for Floristan? This I can’t figure out. There’s a community near Truckee, CA called Floriston – note spelling – which reportedly means “flower town”. Perhaps the Johnsons and/or their sales agent Ernest Becker knew about it. Or else Becker, a German immigrant, was inspired by Florestan – again, note spelling – the hero of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio. (Becker also had a daughter named Florence.) We may never know. In any event, Dr. Johnson was a Georgia boy who began his practice in Atlanta and married Augusta “Gussie” Roberts, an Alabama gal, in Memphis in 1893. The childfree couple came to Eagle Rock in 1909, purchased 53 acres for $40,000, and spent the rest of their lives here.
Find it on the map:
