‘Refinding’ historical treasures, a new Jonesville store brings a sustainable approach

‘Refinding’ historical treasures, a new Jonesville store brings a sustainable approach.

Richmond resident JoAnn Yurchesyn is breathing fresh life into the old Jonesville Country Store on Route 2, location of her new ReFind Boutique, an “upcycled” furniture shop scheduled to open in May. A former teacher from “long line of handy people,” Yurchesyn loves fixing up well-used furniture. 

“My big thing is, do not buy new,” Yurchesyn said. “Go out and find treasures that are spectacular.” It’s “the process of re-finding” that Yurchesyn loves most, she explained. “Looking at the quality and realizing the refinement in the product. And where it's come from, and the life, and the history of it.” Yurchesyn seeks objects that have “lots of thought and process involved in their creation,” she said. 

A space in the back of the store will be Yurchesyn’s furniture workshop. For sale alongside her refurbished pieces will be glassware, china, rugs, vintage clothing, and collectible books. 

All will be second-hand. It’s an approach she sees as a sustainable alternative to business as usual. “We live in the richest country on the planet … we don't need more stuff … we only recycle less than 2% of the products that we manufacture,” Yurchesyn said. “I am very, very much into the reuse market. I love not shopping retail.” 

Yurchesyn, who is from Canada, was a science teacher for 12 years, lived in a Canadian Arctic Inuit community for two years, and also spent a couple years teaching in Bangalore, India. Those experiences shaped her perspective, she explained. “I see the impact that our consumerism has on the globe,” Yurchesyn said. “98% of the fabric that we manufacture in the world comes from the developing world,” she said. “They're getting paid pennies and we buy, you know, a T shirt for $67.50 down at the mall.”

Yurchesyn brings her fix-it-up mentality to her store’s location, a Route 2 landmark that’s more than a century old. It was once the Jonesville Country Store, which closed in 2004. The space has changed occupants several times, serving most notably as a cooperative art center with bright red ceilings, electric green floors, and canary yellow walls, which JoAnn joked left colorful traces behind.

The building was first owned by Plant and Griffith Lumber Company, said Fran Thomas, President of the Richmond Historical Society. The Quinn family moved the Jonesville Country Store there after their original location burned down in December of 1980. 

Just like the neglected furniture Yurchesyn works on, the store had “seen a better day,” she said. The location’s back story, for her, is an inspiration. In the dwindling days before the grand opening in mid-May, Yurchesyn is finishing a major rehabilitation of the historic building. 

“I’m doing it pretty much single handedly and I have been down there 10 hours a day for four months,” Yurchesyn said. That work includes the tedious process of installing solid white pine flooring from a Vermont mill, which Yurchesyn stained by hand. Jute fills any gaps and cracks. It’s “the way they would have done in the old farmsteads 100 years ago,” she said.

The work has been intensive, but also creative. Yurchesyn’s 15-year-old daughter Katherine Hashem designed the ReFind logo, which draws on Native Canadian traditions and the work of Haida artist Bill Reid. The images is now a bold, black-and-white wall mural alongside walls that incorporate repurposed pallets and old fences. 

“We have quite literally touched every square inch of this space,” Yurchesyn said.

ReFind Boutique is located at 3176 East Main Street in Jonesville. Learn more about ReFind Boutique on Facebook.