We’ve known this day was coming for some time now, but it’s still going to be surreal not to see Weir’s Furniture at its usual post on the corner of Travis and Knox. It’s been there since owner J. Ray Weir first opened the store in 1948. The store will close on February 2 to make way for a 12-story office tower.
We won’t have to mourn Weir’s entirely. The traditional furniture store has worked closely with the local developers behind the 12-story project, and plan to reopen in an even larger street-front retail space in the next two years. (They’re also working to protect the façade of the former Highland Park Soda Fountain.) Plus, it will be business as usual at Weir’s other smaller locations in Southlake, Plano, and Farmers Branch.
And yet, even with Weir’s planned return, the whole thing still stings. Knox District has changed a great deal over the years (feel free to revisit this D Magazine post from the ’80s for a wild retail throwback), but the most recent changes have gone beyond tenant turnover. One of the most attractive things about the Knox-Henderson area has always been how different if feels from other Dallas neighborhoods — and the fact that pedestrians actually use the sidewalks. Quaint, single-story storefronts giving way to towering multi-use developments, even ones that are working to preserve history, will be a notable change.
Clearly, Weir’s impending closure has sparked a bit of nostalgia in us, so feel free to join us in a walk down memory lane via this post’s slideshow, and be sure to take one final walk through the store as we know it before it closes Saturday.
