Joan Stadt closing after 37 years

After working in the village for nearly four decades, Joan Stadt will close her store this month.

Joan Stadt Interiors, offering decorations, furniture and interior design work, has been at 35 S. Park Ave. since 1979. “I’m very grateful for the times I’ve had here in the village and with the faithful followers we have,” Stadt said. “I’ve seen a couple of generations, and we’re still going strong with them.”

Though she is closing, Stadt is not retiring. She will still do interior design work for her customers, most likely out of an office somewhere in the village, she said.

She has spent most of her life in Rockville Centre. She moved to the village in 1967 and has lived there ever since, raising her family in town and opening her business there. And she has no plans to leave.

There were many reasons she decided to close the store, Stadt said. Foremost among them was the stress of running the business. “Having the constrictions of having a shop, with everything that goes with it: the overhead, the help and the time,” she said. “We found that retail was not like it used to be.”

Even though she will still be working, not being tethered to the store will give Stadt more freedom, she said. The main thing she would like to do is travel more. “I didn’t have that much of a chance to travel enough,” she said.

At the top of her list is Vienna, Austria, where one of her daughters and her grandchildren live. “I have a new great-grandchild in Austria,” she said.

She initially got involved in interior design when she was pursuing a career in fashion, she recalled. “I was a fashion designer, and then I took courses in interior design,” she said. “And design is design, whether it’s a home or an outfit for someone. It’s balance and color and interest. And that’s what design is. So whether it’s interior or exterior, I got into it. And it just evolved.”

Over the years, she said, she has watched style trends come and go, but she has always had some mainstays in her store: handmade, classic goods and contemporary pieces. But her offerings were always unique, she added, and always quality goods.

“I’ve never gone for trendy stuff,” Stadt said. “Quality is our middle name. That’s why we lasted, and that’s why the furniture lasted. I think that’s how we became a destination: our stuff was different and our look was different.”

Joan Stadt Interiors will be open every day this month while Stadt tries to sell the rest of her inventory. And although she will be moving on to a business that is not location-dependent, she said she would miss the times she had in her store.

“Having the shop and shopping for our customers was a joy,” she said. “It truly was.”