The Victorian house, located at 1115 Minnesota Ave., near the corner of Lincoln Avenue, has a sign posted on its front door saying its lease has expired and that the owners are contemplating their next move.

Daisy Patch employees declined to comment, and current owners Augusta Laura Lee and Paul Burton could not be reached for comment. Property owner Allan Gordon also declined to comment.

"I feel sad about it," said Judie Block, who with Lynette Clark opened the store in 1976 on Lincoln Avenue, where the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company is presently housed. Block and Clark moved their store to the Victorian house in 1979.

"It's the end of an era," Block said.

Block and Clark began the business in 1972 in Block's Willow Glen home, primarily selling flowers and pottery.

The pair celebrated their store's 20th anniversary in September 1996. But after 23 years in business, Block and Clark wanted to sell. They threw a retirement celebration at the coffee shop, remembering its beginnings.

Block went to work in the advertising department of a newspaper in Mountain View.

Clark told The Willow Glen Resident in March 1998 that she and her husband would move to their beach home in La Selva Beach.

They sold the store to Augusta Laura Lee, who changed the name to L'Daisy Patch and then changed it back.

"I didn't feel good about the name change," Block said. "I'm a French snob, and it's poor French grammar. I'm glad it went down in history as The Daisy Patch."

She added, "I always felt that The Daisy Patch was the grande dame of the downtown."

But the grande dame wasn't immune to crime.

On Dec. 5, 1999, L'Daisy Patch employees and Jason Knickbocker, husband of Freckles Children's Boutique owner Jill Knickerbocker, apprehended three teenage girls who were shoplifting from several stores along Lincoln Avenue, which included L'Daisy Patch and Freckles.

But it did not dampen Block's fond memories of the store.