Leonard's Department Store Museum (Texas Country Reporter)

You can find it all at the Leonard’s Department Store Museum in Fort Worth.

Marty Leonard
200 Carroll St
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Phone: 817-336-9111

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Video Script:: 

in this modern age where we can order anything from a TV to a toaster with a click of a mouse it's easy to forget the days of piling into the car and heading to a department store here in Fort Worth you can relive those memories at the Leonard's Museum a tribute to the heyday of American shopping what were your first memories of Leonard's department store I think the same as every child in Fort Worth and that would have been toy land at Christmastime because it was magical and he was considered along with Macy's next best toy land in the country and I remember the windows Leonard's always had so much going on in the various windows you could drive around and everybody did that just about it especially at Christmastime it was a destination and it was for more than just shopping because there was always so much going on Leonard's in 1918 brothers Marvin and Obie Leonard decided to open a small grocery store that eventually grew the length of seven city blocks in downtown Fort Worth Texas until it's sold in 1967 more than a century after it opened Marvin's daughter Marty has kept the store's legacy alive through a museum that she started when she came up with a clever way of getting back her memorabilia so I had a party I said you can only come if you bring a Leonard item and so sure enough a lot of people showed up Oh a lot of people showed of course I've been collecting and still get things now this many years later it's just amazing everything seems to have Leonard's name on it it goes the ruler the salt the baking soda and I think that's part of reason I've got such a big collection we all forget five and dimes Leonard's even had their very own currency from Leonard script - Leonard's detergent brothers Marvin and Obi sure knew how to brand but it was an idea of sheer ingenuity that dug deeper than any sales pitch tell me about the subway it was the world's only privately-owned subway I think we're busing people from the parking lot to the store in buses actually and they got the idea well you know why don't we just build our own subway to there title owner the grant about a mile or a little further and found some cars up in DC and they remade them so that they were you know there's cars and called em you know what started as a small collection of items turned into a collection of countdown history Marty hopes that those who visit her museum can take a step back in time and appreciate what her family worked so hard to build all those years ago you get a lot of people who grew up in Fort Worth they come in here just to reminisce yes definitely in fact my favorite story about that II is that there was a lady here one day and she had been looking around she said you know say you've got a lot of things in here but you're missing one thing and her and said well what's that she said a box of Kleenex so it was an emotional experience for Peter I mean people loved Leonard's it wasn't just a matter of shopping there [Music] you