The Market at Boyer’s Junction, an old country store at 122 Pricetown Road in Fleetwood, has been returned to its former glory by new owners Mark Johnson and his wife, Magdalena. The former architect renovated the store and is striving to bring it back as a community hub.
“That there is Woody Boyer. It started in the 20s with Forest Boyer,” said Johnson. He pointed to a few black and white framed photographs on the wall. “It would have been a very simple general store.”
Forest Boyer was the first to run Boyer’s Junction. During WWII, Elwood Boyer went to Japan, Hawaii, and other places being a mechanic. Close to the end of the war, Forest sent his son a letter stating he wanted to get out of the business and asked if he would like to take it over when he got back. In 1947, Elwood Boyer added a grocery store to the tiny gas station and married Julia B. Stitzer.
Johnson, a former architect, wanted to get away from the computer landscape and do something for himself. When Boyer’s Junction became available in October 2012, he took on the challenge of turning it around. He said it was a challenge to work with the design of the place and create a space that would flow and still be functional. Once he had that fixed, he had to find new ways to please his customers.
Johnson pointed to the picture of Elwood Boyer and said they have the traditional smoked meats that the market had been known for ever since Woody Boyer sold smoked meats. Rich Kemp, butcher, originally worked under Woody and still uses the same recipes. Retaining Kemp as an employee was crucial to getting the smoke house going again.
Johnson said it was really tough building things back up, but felt they had come a long way in four years. The store had been just about closed by the time he got it and felt that if he hadn’t gotten it when he did, it would have been even more difficult to reopen and rebuild. Johnson said he had so many people say they thought it was closed.
“It was a shame. Here you are in a community and this thing has been here so long and you’re thinking, ‘Why is this thing failing?’ People should be rallying around this kind of atmosphere,” said Johnson.
Johnson said the big box stores hurt the country market in the 80s. He is trying to fight back and find the best niche products.
“The catalyst of this store was that fuel,” said Johnson, looking out the window and pointing to the pumps that offer non-ethanol gas.
It was about that time when a vintage army jeep pulled up with the title, Command Sergeant Major, printed just under the windshield.
“Primarily I’m coming down for the gas because it doesn’t have the alcohol in it, but I like the setting. It’s just rural and good people,” said Greg Young, Blandon. “The food is good because they cook it fresh.”
Young had gotten the jeep sometime after its owner had passed and said that he had held the position as command sergeant major. He kept the name of the original owner, CSM Corson, on one side of the windshield and since he had retired first sergeant, put his name on the other side of the windshield. The jeep still had remnants of its service days including the original radio. Young added the bags and his helmet.
Johnson said more and more people were finding out and bringing their old vintage cars, hot rods, you name it; that’s the fuel they were built around. Even the mower shops started recommending them and that was a big part because now he has a lot of people coming in with as many as a dozen little cans.
“It was pretty exciting back in those days and had a big following. It’s been a challenge for Mark and his family. I think they’re really committed to making it work. It’s been a big asset,” said Tom Hughes, Fleetwood.
Hughes first started coming to the market about 45 years ago. He likes the ambiance, food, convenience, friendliness, neighborhood, community, and how the store now anchors all those things.
“We’re trying to build on community because there is no community center here,” said Johnson. “This is it. This is the basis of our community. Communities always had general stores and they are fast disappearing so that was part of the challenge to bring this back into the community as part of the central hub where you actually know a lot of people’s names.”
Johnson believes that is very important for these small places to create a sense of community. He is currently looking into ways to use the property to continue his vision of a community hub. He said even though it might be a crazy idea, you just gotta keep thinking it through and say maybe it isn’t a crazy idea; maybe you can do something.
