Saturday morning, mercantile business, The Belk-Leggett Department Store opened its doors for business amid a sea of competitors--L. Herman, Johnson’s and Efird’s. Fred B. Leggett, then in his early 20s, had just returned from France as a doughboy’ in 1919. He was among the entrepreneurs who purchased a building at 430 Main Street, formerly a shoe store With 7,413 square feet, the first Belk-Leggett store fronted 21 feet on Main Street. 
In the 1925 Danville City Directory, officers of Belk-Leggett included: 

J.M. Belk, President 
W. Henry Belk, Vice-President 
Fred B. Leggett, Secretary-Treasurer! Manager 

At this time, Mr. Leggett was residing in the Caswell Apartments, next to the old Langhorne home, the birthplace of Lady Astor. By 1927, the department store had expanded to include 110 North Union, and Mr. Leggett had moved to 119 Broad. By 1929 the store occupied 414418-430 Main and 110 N. Union. As the business continued to expand it displaced Clements, Chism, & Parker, furniture dealers, from 416 Main; Waddill Printing from 420 Main; Danville Loan & Savings from 422 Main; and Virginia Hardware from426 Main. By 1935, Mr. Leggettt, by then general manager of the business, had moved his residence to Hawthorne Drive. Advertisements from the mid 1930s describe the store as “Danville’s Shopping Centre,’ and mention the famous Bargain Basement.” As the business expanded, passages were created to merge the previously separate buildings. The Leggett Story... A Southern Retailing Family, published in 1986, provides interesting insights into the early years of the business. A special cage built in the basement of the store enabled the cashier to cash checks for tobacco farmers who came to the Danville market. Belk-Legett’s store policy, unusual for the South of the 1920’s, was to serve both black and white customers. Sometimes shoplifters felt Mr. Leggett’s justice personally--he was known to escort them to the basement where they could be subject to punishment. 

In 1984, the department store left downtown for the Piedmont Mall. In 1985, the buildings were purchased by local partnership with Ronald J. Thompson and L. Samuel Saunders, Managing General Partners. After interior renovation on the first floor, the Downtown Mall opened for business in 1986 with a piano store, women’s apparel, Belgium rug outlet, sandwich shop, shoe store, and Dan River outlet. Unable to attract a tenant for the upstairs of this conglomeration of buildings, the mini-mall was vacated in 1989. 

“History repeats itself.” as the saying goes. Barry and Pat Brown, previously buyers for Belk-Leggett, recently came home to the downtown store. In desperate need of expanded space, the Browns relocated the Gingerbread Cottage from its Woodlawn Drive setting to the first floor of the the former department store in October 1991. 

With its fine collection of home furnishings, upholstery, window fabrics, gourmet foods, and gifts, this complete specialty shop has been an economic shot in the arm for the city's first business district, dating from Danville’s founding in 1793.