Curiosity... Boyer's Haunted Shack

[Lowell]

While surfing around my 1942 Sauer Bros. map to take a picture of the Arcade Bar site I stumble across this curiously-named business. Anybody heard of it?



Almighty Google only had one link to this rambling online book.

Fun at work, Hudson style: tales from the Hudson Motor Car Company
By Harry F. Kraus

[LDoolan]

I'll have to dig thru my stuff, but I seem to recall the "Haunted Shacks" was a combination machine shop & a Western Auto type store. Supposedly the Boyer who owned this store worked with Henry Ford back in the Detroit Edison days.

I don't claim 100% accuracy on this, I'm away from my files at the moment, but will look when I get home.

[Mikeg]

1928 Detroit Polk Directory:

Attachment 6863


Aug. 28, 1941 Grosse Pointe News:

Attachment 6864

[EastsideAl]

The Boyer's Haunted Shack sign can be seen in this photo - from U of M's DPL Burton Historical site - of a somewhat earlier period. It's before the Wurlitzer Building was built, but after the saturation of the automobile, so maybe the early 1920s? It seems that Boyer's was then a block north of where it shows on your map. There were apparently a number of auto supply related businesses on Broadway in this period.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...%5DDPA4138.TIF

Click on the left for larger sizes.

[EastsideAl]

Here is a Flickr page of a rather unusual man who is apparently a descendant of the Boyer family. Scroll down to the picture of the Boyer's Haunted Shack key chain tab with the heading "1940-Haunted Shacks" and click on it to read some rather extraordinary claims he makes regarding his lineage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hockpooh777/page4/

[Lowell]

Detail from EastsideAl's link...
Attachment 6883

[jcole]

Here is a Flickr page of a rather unusual man who is apparently a descendant of the Boyer family. Scroll down to the picture of the Boyer's Haunted Shack key chain tab with the heading "1940-Haunted Shacks" and click on it to read some rather extraordinary claims he makes regarding his lineage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hockpooh777/page4/

Yeah, unusual is an understatement.

[Lowell]

The claim that Boyer's were neighbors of the Fords should be verifiable. The "My family invented and built his first car," part would make a great conspiracy plot. Hmm...

And the key chain. I remember these things. As I recall veteran's organizations used to send them to people gratis with a donation envelope.

[Joseph Boyer]

Benjamin Boyer was my great grandfather. He lived in Sault Ste. Maria, spelling?
He owned a farm next to Henry Ford and they were best friends, both worked at Detroit Edison. There is a photo of Henry Ford and my great grandfather standing behind a double baby stoller.. In the stoller is my grandfather and Edsel Ford.
He owned Boyer lake in Canada. He found that it was a very rich in high grade Iron ore. He sold it and the guy that bought it named it The Helen mine after one of his daughters. It ran for 100 years.
He had like nine kids and was married to Anna Bodie. After Anna died Benjamin farmed out the kids to friends. He then went off to find two large gold mines. He became extremely wealthy. That's when The Haunted Shacks opened, Boyer Chemical company, Boyer Candy company. We also invented the pneumatic riveting hammer. The same one Rosie the riviter is holding in the WW2 poster. We did make the car for Henry Ford. One of Benjamin's sons was Joe Boyer. He won the 1924 Indy 500. I was named after him. I could go on and in more detail, but I'll leave it at that.

[RaumVogel]

I wonder why he called it "haunted shack"?

[boater4life]

Joseph, very interesting story. Would you happen to be related to Paul Boyer?

[Joseph Boyer]

Joseph, very interesting story. Would you happen to be related to Paul Boyer?

I'm not sure. I assume that you're speaking of the writer. We are a family of inventors. I've invented a electric powered system for a car or home. The car can power your home or remote home, or you can use the unit for a home. I want to patent it, but I want to stay safe, because this is one of those inventions that big oil and electric companies don't like. The unit for the car, truck, or house takes no charging, no solar panels, no fuel, no oil, no coolent, nothing. The military would love it. The only time you would have to stop driving, is to change tires. I may just end up selling it to the military. I'm sure everyone is curious or doubtful, but it's very real.

[Bizzdo]

Rumor has it that Benjamin Boyer invented a time machine and is solely responsible for the Hoffa disappearance.

[Gil D'Aquin]

Hello Joe,

I ran across your post while researching Joe Boyer the race car driver and Henry Ford. I found out about the Boyers years ago before the internet when my grandmother gave me a suitcase filled with her old photos from the 1910's, 20's, 30's etc. She was getting older and was actually planning on throwing out all the photos as she thought she needed to get rid of stuff. I gladly took them off of her hands and proceded to ask about the various relatives seen in the scrapbooks.
I ran across a picture of two little boys in pedal race cars, and I asked her who they were. She said "They were little millionaires, my Aunt Lou was a kind of governess to them".

She went on to say that they were the Boyer children and that their father had been a wealthy race car driver back in the twenties, but that he'd been killed in a racing accident. She did in fact tell me that the Boyer Estate neighbored the Ford Estate as you suggested in your post. I went through the scrap books and found seven more pictures of the two boys along with a little girl in a couple of the shots.

It wasn't until the internet came out that I was able to Google the name Boyer and race car driver and get some information. I learned that Joe Boyer had been on the Duesenberg racing team in 1924 at Indy 500, and that he was put in as relief driver for another racer who was too skittish to pull ahead in the race. One of the Duesenberg brothers said "Put this ship in front, or burn it up". Joe did and he won. Sadly he was killed a few months later in a race in Altoona.

I found another one of your relatives a few years ago online and sent them scans of the pictures. They sent me scans of newspaper clippings in which I learned that the two boys were named Joseph [[the older one) and Francis [[the younger one) They appear to be about seven and four years old in the pics.

Since my great great Aunt Lou was the governess to his sons, she spent a lot of time taking them on outings, and managed to have some pictures taken. I've got pics of them in their dad's racing car, sitting on the runningboard of a limousine, and at picnic near a stream.

I'd be glad to send you copies of the pictures and share what I know.

If you'd like to call me, I can be reached at 504-849-9009

Gil D'Aquin
New Orleans, La