Leary's Book Store - Closure

Closure

Leary’s heyday was during the “Golden Age of Books,” a period during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century when books were the key source of entertainment and enlightenment.

After World War II consumers for books moved to suburbia where competing book stores and distance to Leary’s resulted in a declining demand for Leary’s used books.

The bookstore closed in 1968. During the final cataloging of its remaining book stock for sale at the Freeman auction house, a number of ancient documents, reported to have languished in the stock for 100 years or more, were found among its contents, including an original broadside of the Declaration of Independence dated to 1776. This proved to be a John Dunlap first printing and it sold for over $400,000 at auction. The buyers, two wealthy Texas businessmen, donated it to the city of Dallas, Texas; it is now on permanent display at the Dallas Public Library.

Leary’s Book Store and the adjoining Gimbels department store, originally acquired by Gimbels in 1894, were demolished by the late 1970s. Various redevelopment proposals for the site have failed and the ground has been used mostly as a parking lot.