Time in a Bottle-Emmitsburg
October 25, 2009
An Emmitsburg Institution by Richard Little
Remember the Community Pure Food Store located at 302 East Main Street? Perhaps you will remember the newer name; B.H. Boyle and Sons, Inc. The former name was the original when Bernard (Bernie) H. Boyle and his wife Mary (Bollinger) Boyle began operation of a successful grocery store enterprise on Friday, May 13th, 1933 with a meager thirty dollars. The new name change was made in 1950 and most notably remembered as Boyle’s store. Bernie and Mary leased the building, a livery stable, from Mrs. Flax. When success and income allowed, Mr. And Mrs. Boyle purchased the building and made 300 E. Main St. (house attached on corner of the store) their home with their four children; Anna Marie (Koontz), Loretta (Sprankle), Patrick and Michael Boyle.
The Boyle’s were excellent storekeepers stocking the up and downstairs with literally every commodity a household would need; hardware, paint, glass, hunting equipment, clothing, appliances (Norge brand), meats and complete line of groceries and candy. Bernie raised his own cattle for processing into his retail sales and supplemented some stock from Sam McNair, a local farmer and cattleman. The abattoir was a separate building behind the main store where Mr. Bill and Turk Chase processed the animals for the show case. Mr. Irving Tokar (dressed in his khaki short sleeved shirts never wearing a coat in winter) and later Dick Sprankle, became the meat department manager spending a lifetime of service to the store. Mrs. Mildred (Millie) Dutrow was clerk and customer salesperson for forty years greeting people with a smile and a cheerful manner. Pat and Mike Boyle graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College and became integral contributing partners of the corporation. Both men possessed entrepreneurial skills along with good business acumen to facilitate the day to day operations as well as the administration duties.
The store extended credit to local customers who would pay weekly as they re-ordered groceries for the next billing period. Groceries could be delivered to your home whether just in town or surrounding rural areas. If a family would not be able to be home, a key would be left or door unlocked for entrance. Mike remembers putting the perishables into the refrigerator or “ice box” and go on to the next stop. Imagine that happening today? Pat remembers delivering food in his red wagon in town before he was old enough to drive a car.
In the early 1980s, a big chain grocery store came to town and set up shop beside Flat Run Creek on the East end of town. As Super Thrift opened its doors, the small shopkeeper began to close their operations. The big store promise of lower prices, larger selections and better availability attracted the attention of the patrons. Not all of these proclamations stayed as store policy. When local competition was pushed out and price challenges no longer existed, the only store in town seized the total market. (Twenty three small businesses once existed in town) Milk that was delivered to your home (Remember Chick Topper?) soon began to be more expensive at the new big store than the home delivery. Where does the meat come from? Who would deliver the groceries? Can you charge your purchases weekly? Were the savings so great to offset these benefits once gotten from small stores? These were legitimate questions asked when the new store came to town and changed shopping forever. The new era of big store business had come to town with the old family businesses fading into the nostalgic conversations.
Another factor that was a precursor for Boyle’s demise was the new health department regulations and modernizations that were always looming particularly if new ownership arrangements were to commence. Pat and Mike decided after much research that the old operation as meat processor and general grocery purveyor could no longer sustain operation with the fiscal challenges needed to accommodate the new health department standards. After spending one hundred combined years of dedicated work to the store, both men chose other professions. Boyle’s Store closed the operation on another Friday the 13th of August, 1983. Mr. and Mrs. Boyle are now deceased both living for ninety- three years.
As nearly all corner grocery stores have succumbed to the big chain competition, modernization requirements and customer attitudes for bigger one stop shopping Mecca’s, the small town landscape throughout America has changed. A piece of the historical cloth of Emmitsburg History tapestry has gone into moth balls only preserved in memory. When the old timers go, only written historical accounts will provide proof that such a place as Boyles’s Store and even small town America really existed. Bernie’s was an original with benefits and advantages never to ever be seen again.
Sincere thanks to Pat and Mike Boyle for this story.
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