The Clotheshorse, 419 Broad St., a fixture in downtown Rome for four decades, will be closing at the end of December.

“I’m going to go home and raise my baby,” said owner Geri Cheeley. “I thought I could handle it, and I can, but it’s stressful and I just want to enjoy it.”

Cheeley has owned the shop since purchasing it from Evelyn Sims 2½ years ago. Cheeley’s son will be 7 months old on Tuesday.

“I’ve brought him to work with me every day and it gets harder and harder,” Cheeley said. “I’ve loved this. It was always a dream of mine to have a store, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll open it back up again, but for right now I want to be home with him and do right with him.”

She said that on occasion it has been a challenge to deal with her child when he has been sick, or if she happens to feel under the weather.

“The customer is always right. If a customer wants me here until 9 o’clock, I’ve done it,” Cheeley said. “When you’ve got a hungry baby and a diaper change, you just can’t do it like you used to, so something’s got to give.”

Cheeley said that at this point she has not tried to market the store to potential buyers. When she bought the store she bought the name and the inventory, and both buyer and seller wanted everything to stay the same.

“I valued the way she had the store, I loved it. My mom and I shopped in here before I bought it and I wanted to keep everything the way she had it,” Cheeley said. “I feel like if anybody else came in and took it over it wouldn’t be the same and it wouldn’t be what people have always known as The Clotheshorse.”

The building itself, still owned by Sims, is also on the market, offered through agents at Hardy Realty. It was assessed at $259,020 earlier this year, an increase of 44 percent from the $178,840 the building was valued at a year ago.

Jimmy Byars at Hardy Realty said, “Evelyn’s got a great building. Not only does the upstairs have steps from the front all the way up to the second floor, but the second floor has a walk-in entrance off Tribune Street.”