Strawbridge’s Reopens on Miller Avenue

The past 11 months have not been kind to Davia Rouda, but things are getting a lot better.

The owner of Strawbridge's Stationers & Gifts, an institution in downtown Mill Valley since 1947, was forced to close her business in December 2009 after a roof leak badly damaged its 2,500-square-foot storefront. What followed was a trying tussle with her landlord, some health issues she said stemmed from the damage to the building and a whole lot of anxiety.

That worry has been replaced by elation, as Rouda and her husband Brian Skinner reopened the store last week, reviving a shop that was as much a landmark as any business in downtown Mill Valley at 86 Throckmorton Avenue.

"We're just really, really happy to be back," she said. "It was very hard to be away from everyone for so long."

The new store is located at 360 Miller Ave. along Mill Valley's version of auto row, between Jiffy Lube and Mill Valley Auto Service in the old Mill Valley Auto Supply storefront. The space is slightly smaller than the downtown location where it resided for 62 years, but it actually appears quite a bit larger, as Rouda and Skinner renovated the place to raise the ceiling and bring in considerably more light.

"All the windows were upstairs and down here was a dungeon," Rouda said. "It looks amazing now."

Rouda bought the business in September 2005 from longtime owner Chris Steindl, who had been weighing a series of offers from out of town bidders. Then 74, Steindl wanted to retire, and Rouda rushed in at the last minute to make an offer that would keep the business locally owned.

Steindl had owned Strawbridge's since 1970, when he bought it from the Strawbridge family. It was adjacent to Peet's Coffee & Tea in the space now occupied by Verde Salon and in the building owned by the Kent Family Trust. The building was built in 1893.

While regular customers will have to get used to a new location, Rouda said she hopes her store can become part of a long-sought revitalization of the boulevard, which the city plans to overhaul with its Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan. She's wary of the proposed parking changes that will come with the redesign, saying that many of her customers, particularly residents of the Redwoods, simply won't be commuting there by bicycle.

"But we chose to be here, and we are excited to be right where we are," she said.

Rouda said longtime customers can expect the same mix of stationery and gifts, with the addition of some products that were staples at the now-defunct Tamalpais General Store, which closed earlier this year.

Rouda brought over former general store employee Liz MacDonald to help her add a variety of items like Russian nesting dolls and unusual books, along with some party-related items and plenty of seasonal and holiday goods.

She also will put out a "wish book" for customers to request that begin stocking certain items.

"Whatever it is that you used to be able to get, wherever you got it, we will get it," Rouda said.