![]() Leonard’s had become the dominant retailer in Fort Worth. In 1930 the brothers bought the block two blocks south of their original location and built a store that covered the block. “the nearest thing to paradise for the youngsters.” (Photo from University of Texas at Arlington Library.)īy 1928 a Christmas ad featured Toyland with Daisy air rifles, roller skates, split reed doll cabs. Looking northwest from the corner of Houston and Weatherford streets. Photo from Down Historic Trails of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. ![]() This modest classified ad is from the Star-Telegram.īy Januthe brothers had apparently cornered the market in California prunes.īy Jthe store no longer advertised salvage. I have enlarged listings of three merchants we still remember. This SeptemStar-Telegram ad lists the Leonard brothers among dozens of grocers selling a Quaker Oats cooker. Brother Green also worked at the store but lived on Arlington Heights (Camp Bowie) Boulevard. Youngest brother Obadiah Paul joined John Marvin in 1919, and the store became “Leonard Brothers.” In 1920 Marvin and Obie were living above the store. Behind him is brother Green. (Photos from Lauren Leonard.) In the bottom photo Marvin is on the left with hand on hip. In the top photo Marvin is on the left wearing a white apron and holding a sack. The store originally measured just twenty-five by sixty feet. Gardiner: On its first day the first Leonard’s store sold $195 ($2,900 today) in merchandise-mostly canned goods. Leonard had learned his lessons well from Lee W. A month after the war ended, John Marvin Leonard on Decemopened his own store at 111 North Houston, west of the courthouse, taking over the space of Texas Salvage and Storage. In Fort Worth Leonard bought the stock of a merchant who was going out of business. Within days Leonard moved to Fort Worth, beyond the sales territory of his mentor, Gardiner. But the war ended on November 11, 1918, before Leonard was sent overseas. Instead he joined the Red Cross and applied for a passport for England and France. In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, Marvin Leonard tried to enlist in the Army, but poor vision disqualified him. (Green Thomas Leonard, listed above in the 1916 Dallas city directory as a painter at Dallas Coffin Company, was the eldest brother. Each morning before dawn Leonard and Gardiner went to the Dallas rail yards to buy unclaimed freight to sell at a low profit margin. Gardiner in Gardiner’s salvage and grocery business for $27.50 a week. Father John was a farmer, but he and wife Emma Clementine briefly operated a small general store in Linden.īy 1915 Marvin Leonard was in Dallas, clerking for Lee W. The boys were five and one years old, respectively, in 1900. Brothers John Marvin and Obadiah Paul Leonard were born in Cass County in northeast Texas. The store sent the child a birthday card annually for the first three years and included a coupon for a free eight-by-ten photo at the store’s studio.īut the sprawling kingdom of commerce that we remember began humbly. When a child was born in Fort Worth, the store sent the parents a welcome box that contained a baby rattle and a pair of baby shoes. For example, it gave newcomers to town a “welcome box” containing a city map, a loaf of bread, a pound of coffee, and an egg separator. Leonard’s even printed its own script as store currency. ![]() The kingdom of Leonard’s contained a beauty salon, a grocery department, an auto service department, a farm department. You could smoke a Leonard’s brand cigar while pushing a Leonard’s brand lawn mower lubricated by Leonard’s brand motor oil. It roasted its own coffee, baked its own bread, put its own Leonard’s brand on products: laundry detergent, refrigerators, freezers. It even had its own creamery to make dairy products. Indeed, at Leonard’s you could buy a piano, a petticoat, or a packet of pumpkin seeds. Leonard’s called itself a “one-stop shopping center.” Hard to argue with that boast. ![]() If you lived in Fort Worth-or even in a neighboring county-during the half-century from 1920 to 1970, you probably have memories of Leonard’s Department Store: of riding its subway, of passing the three street vendors on the sidewalk outside the store, of exploring the store’s seemingly endless departments, of throwing Hasbro hissy fits until your parents let you ride the Santa’s Rocket Express monorail in Toyland at Christmas. And it was all in a single store downtown (when we still shopped downtown). It was as well stocked as an urban shopping center (before we knew what an urban shopping center is). It was as big as a suburban mall (before we knew what a suburban mall is).
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