BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – It was 40 years ago when Jim Rose decided he wanted to own and operate his own body shop. Now four decades later, that one-bay garage on the Meade Road has turned into a 10,000-square-foot facility that is well known to the North Country for its wide range of automotive services.

Boyden Brook Body Works, 159 Meade Road, has reached the 40-year milestone, opening its doors in 1985.

“Jim said he knew then that he didn’t want to do body work for anyone else, so he decided to do it on his own,” stated Jim’s wife Pam. “He put a trailer in and built a small shop that has morphed into what we have now.”

“He started with small body jobs, then an interesting story on how he did UPS trucks. He would work all day, have dinner, put his kids to bed and then drive to deliver the one he had fixed and pick up another, driving to Potsdam, Syracuse, Albany and all over,” Pam noted.

Boyden Brook has 20 full-time employees and a few part-timers, including Brad Carrier who has worked for the Roses for 25 years.

Besides the body shop, Boyden Brooks offers vehicle rentals, oil changes, New York State inspections, tire services, wheel alignments, and air conditioning work.

Business has been so good that the expansion project was a must.

“We were bursting at the seams with work and employees,” she stated. 

The new building will create more room for techs with some moving to the new shop for their bays and work space.

A second paint booth will be set up in the old shop and another wash bay is part of the expansion.

More space will be available for the parts room and training area.

“We had a room that was too small and had many storage buildings for this,” Pam said.

There will be more room for rollbacks to work on and service them.

Boyden Brook has purchased an Adas system so they will not have to tow many vehicles to be programmed.

“With cameras, lane departure and all the computers in cars now, this will save the customer, us and insurance companies time and money because we can do most of it here now,” she explained.

The Roses and Boyden Brook are no strangers to community involvement. Jim and Pam have been involved in Kiwanis, St. Lawrence County snowmobile clubs, alumni associations, and coaching Pee Wee sports.

“We have always supported a big variety of mostly local things,” stated Pam, pointing to Chamber of Commerce events, school programs, sports teams, fundraisers for people in need, senior groups, local fire department, churches and Hospice.

People interested in what Boyden Brook Body Works has to offer, give them a call at (315) 379-9853 or find them on Facebook.

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