To make way for the present apartments, the owners demolished an old duplex and two aged triplexes.

The first of the three buildings was acquired in 1980. For the twenty-two years that followed, sets of married couples renting units in the buildings admired the tall wooden shutters on the triplex at the corner of 300 East and 300 North. Slatted, with a fleur-de-lis design cut through the wood in the top quarter of each panel, the white shutters were strikingly set against the blue/gray masonry walls of the old home.

When the demolition dozers came, nothing escaped them. But, the property managers had carefully removed the unique window accents.  The distinctive fleur-de-lis symbol on these six shutters--links to the past--gave the apartment building its name.

Fleur-de-lis or “fleur-de-lys” as it is sometimes written, may be translated from the French as “flower of the lily.” Its use as the French royal emblem dates back to the twelfth century. www.Fleurdelis.com/fleur.htm. Some say that the symbol was derived from a flower, www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-02/moa-15.html, while others argue that the bee inspired the symbol. Whatever the origin, the lily, now commonly known as an iris, continues to grow along the River Lys in France. 

Irises have been planted on the Apartment grounds to recall the origins of the fleur-de-lis.

Unquestionably, the owners’ personal experiences have contributed to their appreciation of the fleur-de-lis design cut into the wooden shutters. He was a boy scout, who proudly wore the movement’s fleur-de-lis symbol. Later, he was a missionary to Quebec, French Canada, where both the provincial coat of arms and flag display the fleur-de-lis. She, too, rendered French-speaking missionary service, frequently observing the symbol’s use in today’s France.

The building flies a flag displaying the fleur-de-lis.