A beloved appliance store in Jefferson that closed last month has been saved by two new residents.

Mark McCuen and his wife Kaylee recently moved to Jefferson this past January from Arizona. Mark tells Raccoon Valley Radio they primarily moved to Iowa because his wife has some family in the Winterset area, but they picked Jefferson because of the progressive things that were happening. Mark tells Raccoon Valley Radio he also has family ties in Jefferson, with his lineage going back to 1864, along with his grandfather who owned a car dealership in Jefferson and Mark’s father moved out of Jefferson in the 1950s. 

Mark recently learned that John’s Appliance had closed in Jefferson, and that brought back memories for him when he sold appliances early in his life. Mark’s career eventually landed him with a Fortune 500 company, as well as marketing and creating things that led to having five patents. Mark talked with the former owner of John’s Appliance, John Bosshart, who told Mark that he worked until he was 85 because he didn’t want to let the community down, and that gave Mark the motivation to take over the appliance business.

Mark talked with the building owner Jolene Peters about staging the business where John’s Appliance was until the end of June when he and his wife will move the business permanently to where the former Sensibly Chic building is on the south side of the downtown square. Mark says the move will give Peters the ability for her to expand her business, Art on the Fly, and it puts another business into a current building that has been closed for some time. The building is going to be used in June to publicly display about 600 Barbie dolls that were recently donated to the Greene County Historical Museum. 

Mark says in the interim, he will continue to work with anyone who wants to purchase a Whirlpool appliance, he they can order the item from him and he will have the item delivered. He adds that there are two contracted technicians that can handle service calls locally to repair Whirlpool appliances and other makes and models. 

An open house was held Wednesday night for people to stop by the current location and meet the new owners. You can contact Mark McCuen at 515-204-3501 or email at markmccuen@live.com.