Allen Ervin Flowers was born in Columbus, Ohio on March 20, 1847. Flowers came to Portland in 1865 and was one of the very few Blacks to own land in early Portland. He purchased acreage near Mt. Scott where he raised horses and raspberries. Flowers also owned land in northeast Portland in the vicinity of the present day Toyota of Portland car dealership. He became Portland's first Black developer when he constructed a road on NE Schuyler so that his wife, Louisa Matilda (Thacker), could wheel her baby buggy to Union Avenue, which was the only through street to the river at that time.

Flowers died of a heart attack in the family home at 1815 NE First Avenue in Portland on August 18, 1934 at the age of 87. His son Ervin Milton Flowers was listed as the informant on his death certificate. Allen Ervin Flowers was laid to rest at Lincoln Memorial Park on August 21, 1934.

History​ of Portland's African American Community, 1805-1993​ publication produced by the City of Portland Planning Bureau.

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