Texas Merchant
Marvin Leonard and Fort Worth
978-1-60344-054-7 Paperback
6 x 9 x 0 in
264 pp. 19 b&w photos., 6 maps., Table., 2 figs.
Pub Date: 05/21/2008
Available
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 not only for bargains, but also because it was Fort Worth’s place to meet and greet. Later, downtown’s appeal slipped as rival suburban shopping areas grew, but Marvin Leonard 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.
Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History
About the Author
Published by Texas A&M University Press