Market Street Store Reopens

When nearly all of her store’s toys, stuffed animals and board games destroyed by water on the night of January 25 from a frozen pipe that burst upstairs, Kathleen Tutone, the owner of Treehouse Toys, feared the worst for her small business.

“It was mostly just an old pipe that had been there for 30 years and it was just tired,” said Tutone. “Water came in from the ceiling everywhere and so it was quite a problem to have everything be wet.”

Suddenly, one of the downtown’s most well-known, independently owned stores was in serious trouble. Thanks to the support she received from her fellow Portsmouth business owners, her loyal customers and Portsmouth area residents, Tutone and her staff found a way to recover.

“Everything that was plush has to be thrown away,” she said. “We had a lot of books and they had to be discarded.”

Following weeks of clean-up, ordering new product and keeping everything together the best she could, Treehouse Toys reopened on March 1.

Tutone, who has owned and operated the Market Street toy store since 1993, said it was definitely one of the hardest things she has ever experienced, but the support she received from the community gave her the strength to make it through.

“That’s one of the things I’ve learned over this past month is how much support I have in this community,” she said.

The store was closed for more than a month and it was hard for her two full-time employees and her three part-time workers. Tutone didn’t want to lose any members of her crew and paid their salaries while the store recovered.

Tutone said she owns another store in Portland, Maine where she stores additional toys and products. She was able to bring some of that merchandise down to her Portsmouth store. She said there were a lot of vendors who wanted to help them.

She, Treehouse Toys Manager Robin Souther and the manager of the Portland, Maine store also attended a toy fair in New York City while the store was closed to order more products.

After they reopened, Tutone said she saw a flood of her loyal customers and Portsmouth area residents come in to see how the store was doing. “Over the last week a lot of people have come in and they have been very happy that we’ve been open and wanted to see how the store looks,” she said.

She couldn’t say how long it would take to fully recover from the flooding damage that occurred. She is in the process of filing a claim for loss of business and other damages to recover some of the financial losses.

“These things happen in life,” she said. “We want to be here. We really love this town.”