Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Hammertown to close Pine Plains store and end operations after more than 40 years

Hammertown to close Pine Plains store and end operations after more than 40 years

Customers fill the parking lot at home decor store Hammertown Barn on Friday, April 3, after founder Joan Osofsky announced the store would be closing permanently. The designer furniture outlet operated the flagship store in Pine Plains for more than 40 years and stores in Rhinebeck, New York, and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Photo by Nathan Miller

PINE PLAINS — Home decor store Hammertown will be closing its doors permanently, founder Joan Osofsky announced in an email sent to customers on Thursday, April 2.

The home decor and furniture store has operated in Pine Plains for more than 40 years. The business also operates a storefront in Rhinebeck, New York, which is also slated to close. It previously had a location in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which closed in March.

The store is best known for offering a mix of contemporary and rustic-style furniture rooted in the region’s rural traditions.

"What began as a small store in Pine Plains grew into something far beyond what I even imagined — not just three stores, but a true community," Osofsky wrote.

Shoppers cars spill out onto Route 199 on Friday, April 3, as their owners crowd into home decor store Hammertown Barn for the first day of a 40% off closing sale. Founder Joan Osofsky announced on Thursday, April 2, the business would be shutting its doors permanently.Photo by Nathan Miller

Osofsky described the decision as bittersweet and said she will be at the stores in their final days to celebrate and sell the remaining merchandise. The stores will remain open until inventory is sold.

Osofsky told customers that all items will be sold at a 40% discount. Consignment and already reduced-price items are not included in the closing sale.

"This closing is bittersweet, but the friendships, memories, and connections we shared will endure," Osofsky said.

Customers at the store on Friday, April 3, echoed that sentiment. Jennifer Enloe said she had been visiting the store since the '90s, sometimes just to browse and enjoy the homey feeling inside the shop without any intention of buying anything.

"I would just go there just to walk around and feel at home," Enloe said. "It makes me kind of sad, but I understand it's time for Joan to move on. It surprises me how I feel about it."

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.