Heritage District Liberty Market
N 33° 21.283 W 111° 47.387
12S E 426516 N 3690890
This plaque commemorates the Liberty Market, one of the few buildings in downtown Gilbert not made of adobe brick.
Waymark Code: WMKTKY
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 05/28/2014
Views: 6
This plaque describes the history of the Liberty Market in the Heritage District of Gilbert Arizona. The bronze plaque, engraved with pictures of a fire in 1938, reads:
Heritage District
Liberty Market
Eddie and Edith Dong built Liberty Market in 1936. It was a very modern store at that time. Ben Ong, a native of China, came to the United States in 1929 and began working at Liberty Market in 1936. Ben married Mae in a typical Chinese family arranged marriage that lasted 64 years. Ben and Mae managed and subsequently purchased the market from the Dongs in 1943. When the Ongs enlarged the store in 1957, Mae Ong designed the neon sign with the star over the "I" in Liberty. The sign is still on display in front of the building. In the early 1980's the market was purchased by the Sam Brommert family. In 2006 the Johnston family purchased the building and it was reopened as a restaurant in 2008 by Joe and Cindy Johnston and David and Kiersten Traina.
The fire pictured below took place in October 1938. The REO Speedwagon fire truck in the photo is currently on display at the Gilbert Historical Museum at the southwest corner of Elliot and Gilbert roads.
Presented by Gilbert Leadership Class XX 2012. A program of the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce.
Marker Name: Heritage District Liberty Market
Type of history commemorated: Place
County: Maricopa
Name of any agency/ agencies setting marker:
The Gilbert Chamber of Commerce
Year placed: 2012
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