{"id":229797,"date":"2026-04-01T06:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:08:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:08:32","slug":"photos-remember-barnes-noble-in-downtown-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229797\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Remember Barnes & Noble in downtown Fort Worth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been more than 12 years since Barnes & Noble left its block-long location in downtown Fort Worth\u2019s Sundance Square. The retailer, which was struggling against the headwinds of e-commerce, also closed a University Drive store.<\/p>\n

With news this week that Barnes & Noble will open a new store off West 7th Street<\/a>, we took a look at some of the Star-Telegram\u2019s archive photos of the old downtown store on Commerce and East 3rd streets.<\/p>\n

The store opened in 1996 and closed on Dec. 31, 2013. Much of the bookstore\u2019s former space is now the Cheesecake Factory.<\/p>\n

The Star-Telegram talked to unhappy customers on B&N\u2019s last day in downtown. Scroll down below the photos to see what they had to say back in December 2013.<\/p>\n

\"April April 28, 2004: Palace Theater and Barnes & Noble Booksellers in downtown Fort Worth. RODGER MALLISON FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM \"Sept. Sept. 6, 2013: Inside the Barnes & Noble in downtown’s Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram \"Aug. Aug. 23, 2000: Musician and writer Ted Nugent mugs for a camera along with a young fan Tyler Barbare, 7, during Nugent’s book signing at Barnes and Noble in downtown Fort Worth. Ron Jenkins Fort Worth Star Telegram \"Aug. Aug. 23, 2000: Musician and writer Ted Nugent responds to a reporter’s question before Nugent’s book signing at Barnes and Noble in downtown Fort Worth. Ron Jenkins Fort Worth Star Telegram \"Sept. Sept. 6, 2013: Barnes & Noble in downtown\u2019s Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram \"Sept. Sept. 6, 2013: The Barnes & Noble in downtown\u2019s Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram \"March March 7, 2001: Wayne Niemi of Dallas naps at Barnes & Noble in downtown Fort Worth. Carolyn Mary Bauman STAR-TELEGRAM \"Shoppers Shoppers get a last chance to browse and take advantage of discounts as Barnes & Noble Booksellers closes its downtown Fort Worth bookstore on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013. Rodger Mallison Star-Telegram \"Sept. Sept. 6, 2013: Inside the Barnes & Noble in downtown\u2019s Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram \"Sept. Sept. 6, 2013: Inside the Barnes & Noble in downtown\u2019s Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram \"Apri Apri 8, 2000: Sergei Khrushchev, the son of former soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, signs a copy of his book \u201cNikita Khrushchev\u201d as Eugene Cernan signs a copy of his book \u201cThe Last Man on the Moon\u201d for Claudia Cepeda of Houston at the downtown Barnes & Noble in Sundance Square. Jeffery Washington Star-Telegram \"Dec. Dec. 31, 2013: Shoppers get a last chance to browse and take advantage of discounts as Barnes & Noble Booksellers closes its downtown bookstore in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. Rodger Mallison Star-Telegram <\/p>\n

This Star-Telegram story published on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014:<\/p>\n

A mismatched mix of gloom and bargain hunting filled the air Tuesday as shoppers wandered through the stacks on the last day of business at the downtown Barnes & Noble Booksellers, a Sundance Square fixture since 1996.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am depressed it\u2019s going away,\u201d said Dana Hairgrove, 28, a Dallas schoolteacher who used to live in Fort Worth. \u201cIt\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

She bought a children\u2019s book for her class and a novel for herself, about a bookseller – Mr. Pembra\u2019s 24-Hour Book Store. \u201cI thought it would be fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store, a block-long edifice along Commerce Street with an in-house Starbucks coffeehouse and a movie theater around the corner, drew shoppers to whom the retailer had imparted happy memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s where I went for coffee after the show as a teenager. It was the most fun,\u201d said Georgetown resident Josh McConnell, 34, who grew up in Burleson and returned Tuesday to snap up books with a $50 gift card he got for Christmas. \u201cIt\u2019s a great day to use it with 50 percent off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all books were so heavily discounted. Those left over will be shipped to other stores.<\/p>\n

In September, Barnes & Noble announced that it would close the downtown store for economic reasons and the University Park Village location in Fort Worth because the new landlord there, Glimcher Realty Trust in Ohio, wanted to raise the rent.<\/p>\n

The Barnes & Noble at University Park Village also closed Tuesday at 6 p.m. with customers coming in to say goodbye, said an employee, Nick Rainone. Glimcher has indicated that it will subdivide the space for smaller retailers. The closures leave a store near Hulen Mall as the last Barnes & Noble in Fort Worth, with other Tarrant County stores in Arlington, Hurst and Southlake.<\/p>\n

In downtown Fort Worth, former employees slipped in to hug and chat with past colleagues and bosses, creating little emotional snippets mostly unseen by busy, preoccupied shoppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to love this store,\u201d said Gene Moore, a moonlighting school librarian who worked for years at the Sundance store and has been offered a similar position at the Hulen store in southwest Fort Worth. \u201cThere\u2019s something so special about this store, so distinct. I can\u2019t imagine my life without Barnes & Noble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from being the largest single retailer in the business district, at nearly 25,000 square feet, the bookstore had a mammoth replica of Frederic Remington\u2019s sculpture The Bronco Buster popping through the second story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they going to do with the statue?\u201d McConnell asked.<\/p>\n

The sculpture, fashioned out of a Styrofoam-like material and painted to look bronzed, belongs to Sundance Square. The property company won\u2019t decide its fate until a new tenant is found, said Tracy Gilmour, Sundance\u2019s director of marketing.<\/p>\n

Rumors had filtered down to the children\u2019s section that the downtown Barnes & Noble would become a franchised restaurant featuring a rich dairy-based dessert.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeriously, do they have to make it a Cheesecake Factory?\u201d complained Caden Byas, 7, an outspoken second-grader from Saginaw. \u201cI hate cheesecake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnny Campbell, Sundance Square\u2019s president and CEO, said talks are underway with \u201ca list\u201d of prospective tenants, but he declined to specifically address the possibility of cherry cheesecakes being bolted down in what had been the classic literature department.<\/p>\n

MORE: Check out Star-Telegram archive photos in our collection here<\/a>, including:<\/p>\n

Fort Worth as it looked in 1988<\/a>Photos of Ridgmar Mall during its heyday<\/a>Dolly Parton\u2019s 1977 concert in Fort Worth\u2019s Panther Hall<\/a>Fort Worth\u2019s long-gone grocery stores<\/a>Fort Worth in 1990: Archive photos<\/a>100 years of Boy Scouts in Fort Worth\/North Texas<\/a>Fort Worth\u2019s Forest Park Zoo in the 1940s-50s<\/a>Long-lost restaurants of Fort Worth<\/a>Hollywood movie stars in Fort Worth<\/a>Paschal High School in the 1950s<\/a>Elvis Presley in Fort Worth<\/a>President Jimmy Carter\u2019s visit to Fort Worth in 1978<\/a>Historic photos of Fort Worth Stock Show parade<\/a>1972 demolition of 18-story Worth Hotel<\/a>Leonards Department Store in 1940s-50s<\/a>Fort Worth housewives in 1952 prepare for Thanksgiving<\/a>Weatherford, Texas, from 1870s to 1950s<\/a>President Kennedy in Fort Worth, the day he died<\/a>Billy Bob\u2019s Texas, 1981 grand opening<\/a>1939 opening of West Lancaster bridge in Fort Worth<\/a>Keller, Texas, during the 1920s-1950s<\/a>Greater Fort Worth International Airport, 1953 opening<\/a>Fort Worth Stock Show, 1930s to 1950s<\/a>Queen Elizabeth visits Texas in 1991<\/a>Fort Worth snowfalls, from 1880s to 1950s<\/a>Labor Day in Fort Worth over the decades<\/a>Sept. 11, 2001, in Fort Worth and DFW airport<\/a>Churches in the Fort Worth region, back to the 1800s<\/a>
\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Leclercq<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Matt Leclercq is senior managing editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He previously was an editor at USA Today in Washington, national news editor at Gatehouse Media in Austin, and executive editor of The Fayetteville (NC) Observer. He\u2019s a New Orleans native.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been more than 12 years since Barnes & Noble left its block-long location in downtown Fort Worth\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-229797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}