Record Town -- Fort Worth TX
N 32° 42.420 W 097° 21.616
14S E 653689 N 3619994
The iconic Record Town store has been in business right across the street from Texas Christian University (TCU) since the 1950s. It is owned by the Bruton family, who are Texas music legends in their own right. Sumter Bruton is the current owner.
Waymark Code: WMFKYN
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/01/2012
Views: 3
Several members of the Bruton family are Texas music legends. Although (now-deceased) Steven Bruton was probably the best-known musician, his brother Sumter and their mother and Dad are also well-known and well-loved in Texas music circles.
I always enjoyed coming to the store as a child. Mom and I would usually stop in after picking up the dry-cleaning a few doors down. Of course, the dry-cleaner is long gone now, but this record store remains!
Mom loved opera. The Record Town folks would order the latest performances of her favorite sopranos for her. Then we'd have to check in frequently to see if the records had arrived yet. My job was to carry them to our home 2 blocks away on Wabash Street. I was too short to carry the dry-cleaning, but I'd have rathers carried the clothes. Mom's opera records came in 10-LP sets, heavy for a 4 year old to horse around!
Dad and I also came into Record Town while running errands, although Dad preferred to shoot the breeze with the owners while I looked at all the album art. Dad told me that he shopped at this store when he was a student at TCU in the mid-1950s, and brought Mom here once on one of their dates. (They married in 1961.)
I also remember the wonderful Record Town neon sign that still shines today from my childhood. Their neon sign was one of my favorite things to look at along University Drive.
No disrespect to Record Town, but the Covered-Wagon Burger neon horses that galloped a few blocks away on Berry Street was my #1 FAVORITE must-see kid landmark in those days. I'd howl if I missed it. If Mom was driving, she'd tell me to pay more attention to the world around me. If Dad was driving, he's turn around and park in the parking lot so I could get a good long look! (He'd also usually get us a couple of sodas, since we were already there anyway. "Don't tell your mother," he'd say. <-- one of many dad-daughter adventure secrets we shared. And I NEVER told my mother.)
Although we moved across town in 1968, I always remembered Record Town and the Covered Wagon Burger. Naturally, when I got a car as a teenager, I'd stop in for rock and roll records. By then, the Covered Wagon Burger was closed and the neon horses were gone.
Today (Dec 2012) Record Town is still open across from TCU, for those who want an increasingly hard-to-find vinyl experience in this digital world.
Address:
3025 S University Dr
Fort Worth , TX
76109
Staff is knowledgeable: yes
Easy parking: yes
Good selection: yes
Well organized: yes
Listening stations available: yes
Is there a magazine section?: yes
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Visit Instructions:
To log, post a picture of the music store and mention what music, if any, you purchased while you were there.