ABOUT JERICHO CENTER
COUNTRY STORE
~A BRIEF HISTORY~
Jericho Center Country Store was originally founded in 1807 as Blackman’s Store by Pliny Blackman. His store originally offered staples such as molasses, flour, sugar, rum, and farm supplies. He obtained his goods by traveling north to Winooski, where he then rafted on Lake Champlain up to the St. Lawrence River in Montreal. There he bartered for the goods he would re-sell or re-barter in his store.
The store changed hands a handful of times over the next two centuries, from the well-known Jordan Brothers to perhaps the store’s most beloved owners, Gerry and Lil Desso. From the late 1960s through 1997, the Dessos packed their store with everything the townspeople would ever need – groceries, hardware, craft supplies, toys, clothing – it was the epitome of the classic Vermont general store. People often joked that “if Dessos Store didn’t have it, you didn’t need it.” A book by local children’s author Tracey Campbell Pearson, The Storekeeper, is based on the Dessos.
In 2002 the St. Amour family took over and re-tooled the store. Many Vermont general and country stores and in the country in general struggle to compete with chain and box stores. Jericho Country Store focused its attention on food. Our belief is that you can still get food on the go – a.k.a. fast food – that is high in quality and homemade in attention. We source what ingredients we can from local vendors and farmers like Cabot and LaPlatte Angus Farm beef. We slice our own Boar’s Head deli meats, hand-punch our potatoes for french fries, and sometimes smoke our meat on premises. We continue to offer great beer and wine, REAL maple creemees, groceries, gifts and more!
