Gilsenan Designs showroom to close

By Roger Gavan WARWICK — After much consideration, Rosita Gilsenan, owner of Gilsenan Designs, Inc., a kitchen and bathroom, cabinetry, design and sales firm at 13 First St., Suite 1, in the Village of Warwick, has decided to close her showroom.

Loyal customers, past, present and future, however, need not be concerned since Gilsenan will move some of her merchandise to temporary quarters a couple of doors down the block. A newly renovated former storage area is now a showroom. And she will maintain a private office in her home and work occasionally by appointment.

Gilsenan, a native of Ireland, may also be using cyber space to handle orders from across the sea.

“My parents in Ireland,” she said, “are in their 90s and still living together in the house they moved into in 1943 when they married. They will celebrate their 70th anniversary next June, and taking care of the house is becoming a little more difficult. I want to spend more time with them, as they need help now, and my children are grown.”

Gilsenan plans to keep her home in Warwick and literally commute from time to time to her home in the Village of Moynalty, near Kells in County Meath, where she will be for the month of May. She will return to Warwick in June and then head back to Ireland for the summer.

An accomplished artist, musician and actress as well as businesswoman, Gilsenan has an additional reason to spend time in her hometown.

She owns a studio, the Maperath Art Center, a retreat for the promotion of visual arts and other creative endeavors in Masperath, which is also near Kells.

“I’ll have one foot here and one foot there,” she laughed. “I’m still not sure where I’ll be buried.”

Revitalize Perhaps no one in recent times has had a greater impact on Railroad Avenue and First Street in the Village of Warwick than Rosita Gilsenan, who purchased the historic ballroom and stables next to the former Demarest Hotel, now an office building, in 1999.

Gilsenan, who had been working for others since 1990 and later became self employed, opened her showroom in 1998. She purchased the entire building a year later. The condition of the nineteenth century structure was so poor at that time that no bank would provide financing. But little by little, by using her own cash flow, she restored it and revitalized the neighborhood at the same time.

“It was literally on its last legs,” said Gilsenan,” and kitchen by kitchen, I was able to bring the building back to life, creating the courtyard on Railroad Avenue after the style of my home town in Ireland.”

Her decision to close the showroom was also prompted by the need for her tenant Peter Ladka, owner of Parse3, to expand his software solutions company. He will be using the former Gilsenan Designs showroom for additional space.

“I am very grateful,” said Gilsenan, “to all the hundreds of Warwick residents who allowed me to design their kitchens, bathrooms, libraries, bars, and so forth over the years, providing them with quality cabinetry, counter tops, and good service.”

To purchase remaining display cabinetry at discount call 986-8740.

For information about Rosita Gilsenan’s Maperath Art Center in Kells, visit www.maperathartcenter.com.