ORWIGSBURG - The contents of the former Fryers 5&10 at 210 E. Market St. will be up for sale at Leesport Auction at 2 p.m. today, according to a handwritten sign in the store's window.
"It was an icon in town. I grew up my whole life here. And it's probably the first place I bought anything. It's just a shame one of those quintessential small town features can't make it the way retailing is these days," borough Mayor Barry J. Berger said Sunday.
The auction will be held at Leesport Farmer's Market Banquet Hall just off Route 61 at the north end of Leesport, Berks County, according to www.auctionzip.com.
Kenneth P. Leiby Auction Service will be the auctioneer. Items will include hundreds of Hallmark-brand greeting cards, model cars and trucks, a brass cash register, games, puzzles, die-cast metal toys, coloring and children's books, housewares, gift wrap, crafts, office supplies including binders and stationary, picture frames, tricycles, crayons, sewing items and display racks and shelving, according to the website.
According to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator, the building is owned by siblings Glenn R. Frantz, Orwigsburg, Gary L. Frantz, New Ringgold, and Jody Mack, Valley View.
Their mother, Joyce E. Frantz, ran the business since 1971, according to The Republican-Herald archives.
Born in Hamburg, Jan. 4, 1935, Joyce E. Frantz was a daughter of the late George W. and Esther C. Werner Fryer. She was a 1952 graduate of Hamburg High School and a 1956 graduate of Cedar Crest College, Allentown, majoring in home economics.
"She was the owner and operator of Fryers 5&10, Orwigsburg. She took over the business in 1971, which was started by her family in 1929, out of Hamburg. It then moved to Orwigsburg in 1954," according to her obituary.
Joyce Frantz died May 25, 2013, at age 78.
"My grandfather started it, and my mom took it over. Economic conditions are why it had to close, just like all the other small businesses in the area. My mom passed away a year ago, and Glenn had been managing it," Mack said.
"I'm disappointed to see a business close in the borough. We hope for the best for the family involved. And hopefully we'll be able to see new life injected into the building quickly," borough Manager Michael P. Lonergan said.