“We’ve had a long, long history, and I’ve been very thankful for the opportunity,” David Baker said of the business started by his grandfather in 1923.

GARLAND, Texas — David and John Baker still remember roaming their grandfather’s hardware and furniture store when they were kids. Now, as the third generation of Bakers to operate Baker’s Main Street Furniture in Garland, they are regrettably bidding the family’s 103-year-old business goodbye.

“I started working here when I was about five or six years old,” David Baker said. “And I’d make a dollar when I swept the floors.”



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“Dang, you got paid well at that age,” his brother John said in a lighter moment during a conversation about the decision to close the family business in old downtown Garland. 

“All of its painful. I hate to close it,” David Baker said. “Overall, it’s just a change in the world, change in the country,” he said of a modern-era furniture business dominated by furniture megastores and online retailers. He also said there really isn’t a fourth generation of Bakers wanting to take over.

“In our family, we have two doctors, we’ve got a United States Air Force pilot. We have a lot of professional people in our family in the fourth generation, but none of them wanted to do this. I don’t blame them,” David Baker said.

“They made the right choice,” John Baker said. 

“I didn’t decide it was time,” to close, he said. “It was just necessary.”

Their grandfather, August Marvin “A.M.” Baker, started the business as a hardware store in 1923. They would go on to sell the first available washing machines, ice box refrigerators, and even the first black and white televisions.

“Sold pretty much everything but food,” David said. 

Baker’s Main Street Furniture would eventually grow to six locations and employ more than 200 people before larger retail operations began to cut into their business.

“My favorite memories are probably when my Granddad was here and my dad was here, and all of our brothers,” John said. “My two brothers were here. We were all together.”

As for their granddad, they joke that he might actually still be here. Some employees swear they’ve seen him. 

“Well, several people say that his ghost lives in this building. And I don’t think he’s upset about it at all,” David said. 

“Like David said, you know, my grandfather’s probably hanging around here somewhere,” John said. 

“He just makes sure that you make sure that you do what you’re supposed to do,” David said with a smile.

And what they believe A.M. Baker would want them to do is stay open until every piece of furniture is gone.

“Our customers will tell us when the final date is. When it’s all sold,” David Baker said. “When we’re down to the last piece then we’ll close.”

“We’ve had a long, long history, and I’ve been very thankful for the opportunity.”

An opportunity, a family legacy, and just maybe the ghost of Grandad Baker, bidding Garland goodbye.