Leaird’s fire leaves lasting loss on Gatesville square

Leaird’s loss stripped the west side of the Gatesville courthouse square of one of its oldest anchors. The store began in 1898, when Byron Leaird and his wife moved to Gatesville, rented a building on the west side of the square and opened a mercantile business that served the city and Central Texas for 117 years.

That history made the March 16 downtown fire more than a property loss. The blaze, reported around 6:50 p.m. on the southwest corner of the courthouse square near the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office, destroyed four buildings: The Gatesville Messenger, Leaird’s Furniture and Appliance Store, A Freedom Bail Bonds and Davidson Chiropractic. Three firefighters were injured. Highway 84 was later reopened after the fire, but the damage had already reshaped the square’s daily traffic pattern and removed a building that had long pulled people into the heart of downtown.

The loss landed especially hard because Leaird’s was still a visible part of civic life just before the fire. The Gatesville Chamber of Commerce named it Business of the Month for March 2026, underscoring how deeply the store remained tied to the local economy and to the identity of the courthouse square. Its merchandise had changed over time, from hardware and dry goods to clothing, caskets, appliances and home furnishings, but its place in Gatesville had not.

The fire also hit a downtown district that had only recently gained formal preservation status. Gatesville’s downtown historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 9, 2026, and the district includes 12 blocks and 87 resources, many of them dating to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The National Register is the nation’s official list of cultural resources deemed worthy of preservation, and the timing made the fire sting even more sharply: one of the square’s most recognizable landmark businesses was gone days after the district received that recognition.

County Judge Roger A. Miller signed a local disaster declaration on March 17, opening the door to state assistance, recovery crews and additional emergency operations. What comes next will shape more than cleanup. The square has lost a major destination, nearby property has been disrupted, and Gatesville now has to decide whether the burned-out corner becomes another long vacancy or the start of a broader downtown reset.