Few department stores symbolized the aspirations of a community or
represented the identity of its citizens in a stronger or more
enduring way than Leonards in Fort Worth, Texas. For over fifty
years, as the store grew from a cubbyhole across from the Tarrant
County courthouse into a retailing behemoth sprawling over six and
a half downtown blocks, Marvin Leonard, the store's founder, and
his brother Obie ran a store that was always a unique place to
shop. The brothers used a combination of large volume, low mark-up,
and quick turnover to keep prices low and appeal to the common
people of Fort Worth and West Texas. Customers also found a
stunning array of goods -- fur coats and canned tuna, pianos and
tractors -- and an environment that combined the spectacular with
the familiar.
But the story of Leonards goes beyond the store and the man who
made it. For Marvin Leonard, downtown Fort Worth and Leonards were
always intertwined. In the earliest years, Fort Worth's working
families and rural West Texans shopped Leonards for bargains, but
also because it was Fort Worth's place to meet and greet. As Fort
Worth's demographics changed, Leonards created a carnival-like
atmosphere that drew customers to the store, even adding its own
free subway to ease downtown congestion. Later, downtown's appeal
slipped as rural populations declined and rival suburban shopping
areas grew, but Marvin Leonard always refused to expand beyond one
store and never left downtown.
Leonards gave Fort Worth a special identity, a distinctiveness,
and an attraction to the city's center. When Tandy bought Leonards
and later sold it to Dillard's, Fort Worth's image and character
changed.
This engaging story of aman, a business, and the community the
store mirrored and shaped represents local history and biography at
their finest.
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