By JESSE DAVIS
THE GOSHEN NEWS
ELKHART —
If it weren’t for the empty booths, you wouldn’t have known it was the last day the American Countryside Farmers Market would ever open its doors.
Saturday was the final day of business for the market, which opened in May of 2007 on a 15-acre site at Ind. 19 and C.R. 26 just south of the U.S. 20 Bypass. The building itself was designed to be special, the world’s largest woodpeg structure, built by Amish craftsmen. The market featured everything from crafts to furniture, fresh meat and produce to dessert shops, and was regularly the site of cooking classes, political rallies and other events.
Citing the recession as the main reason, LeRoy Troyer’s architectural firm The Troyer Group of Mishawaka announced a month and a half ago that Sept. 4 would be the market’s final day. Troyer founded the market along with Kenneth Bemiller, Art Moser and Mick Tuesley.
Lois Hooley, while working at the Ridge Lane Farm organically grown produce booth Saturday morning, said her farm had a booth at the market since June of last year. She said their business started out very slow back then, but had picked up.
“This summer our customers have found us and we’ve done really well,” Hooley said.
Some of that new momentum will be lost, she said, now that their customers will have to learn a new location.
“We were like ‘Finally! We’ve got a following,’ and now we have to go somewhere else,” Hooley said.
At the other end of the building, Judy Benninghoff and Ed Bennett were working at The Candlestick Maker. Benninghoff’s shop sells all things made of scented wax. It has been a staple of the market since two months after it opened.
One thing was right
Bennett noted one thing in particular that the market got perfect.
“The atmosphere,” he said. “It was perfect for what it was intended for.”
Benninghoff said they were one of about five vendors called to a meeting with investors just before the announcement that the market would be closing. She said it was a “total shock.”
“A million things went through our heads, but that was the last thing we ever expected,” Benninghoff said.
She added that there had been an interesting side effect of the announcement that the market would be closing — the crowds have been great. Ever since it was published in local newspapers that Saturday would be the last day, she said, all kinds of people have been coming in, wishing it wasn’t closing.
Benninghoff said she will move her booth to a farmers market in St. Joseph, Mich., closer to where she and Bennett, both Michigan residents, each live.
“It’s busy all the time up there,” Benninghoff said.
First and last
Among the people milling around and perusing what shops were still open — only about a fifth or fewer of the stalls still housed vendors — was Wisconsin resident Bonnie Roth. Roth, who was in town to visit friends, has a unique distinction among customers at the market. She only ever visited twice, both times while seeing the same friends. She was there during its opening weekend as well as its closing weekend and final day.
“I love the building and the architecture here,” Roth said.
She said she always wondered whether being open only three days a week hurt business at the market, which was open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It was, however, also open Wednesdays from May to Labor Day.
“That was probably difficult,” Roth said.
It is unknown how the closing of the market affects plans for the American Countryside Holiday Resort, a nearly $200 million proposed vacation facility to be located on 300 acres immediately east of the market. Plans for the project include a tropical water park, shops, restaurants, approximately 600 four-, six- and eight-person villas and 60 fully furnished apartments. It would also include the construction of artificial lakes.
The project was approved for $10 million in assistance out of recovery zone facility bonds by Elkhart County Commissioners in January of this year. As of this summer, involved parties were still looking for sources for the remainder of the funding.
