Category:Leon Furniture Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Leon Furniture Company had its origins in July 1919, being established as the New Home Furniture Company in the Commonwealth Building, 512 Hamilton Street. It was formed by Alex (Abe) Karol, A Nathanson and David Levitt. Levitt was formerly with the Prince Furniture Company, 520 Hamilton Street, who became manager. Karol was born in 1888, and moved to Allentown in in 1893. He graduated from Allentown High School in 1906 and later attended the Allentown Preparatory School. In 1926, the firm was renamed as the Leon Furniture Company, when it was purchased by Leon W. MacMullen, who was a native of Allentown and operated a chain of furniture stores previously in Newark, New Jersey and New York City. In the purchase, Karol became vice-president of the new firm. The store was moved to the Breinig and Bachman building, southeast corner of Sixth and Hamilton Streets and opened on May 12th, 1926. The store initially operated from the first floor of the building, however it expanded to include the basement and second floor within its first year. In June 1929, the business moved to 16-18 North Seventh Street, a larger building, formerly the L H Yeager building, which had moved to the east side of North Seventh.

The store successfully sold home furniture for many years on North Seventh Street. MacMullen retired in February 1938 and Karol became the general manager. On February 9th, 1969 the building was engulfed in a general alarm fire, the largest fire in Allentown's modern history. The structure was immediately condemned after the fire was extinguished and was torn down the next day.

The business never reopened afterwards; the structure was subsequently torn down and became a vacant lot. Abe Karol subsequently became involved in the Souderton Furniture Market. He passed in April, 1972. The lot where Leon's was formerly located remained undeveloped until being incorporated into the NIZ Marriott Renaissance Hotel in 2011 as part of the NIZ redevelopment in Center City Allentown.