Living Up to a Name
Standing onstage to accept the 2026 Best New Store Beacon Award in Orlando, Florida, this July, Julie Walker-Martin thanked her team, True Value and the people who helped turn a difficult project into a successful store.
Then she talked about her father.
Howard Walker spent decades serving Henrietta, Texas, as a teacher and pastor. From him, Julie says, she learned about hard work and the responsibility that comes with helping others.
“He taught me about serving the community,” Julie told the Beacon Awards audience. “We try to complete that every day with our customers and serving our community.”
Howard was supposed to have had a role in the hardware store himself. His retirement plan included spending time there, greeting customers and staying connected with the people he had known through a lifetime in Texas’s Clay County. He died in 2022 before seeing that to fruition.
Julie and her husband, Cory Martin, carried the idea forward, naming the business Howard Walker’s True Value Hardware. The store opened Jan. 27, 2025, in downtown Henrietta. The name pays tribute to Howard.
What the Martins have accomplished since they opened explains why the business has earned a Best New Store Beacon Award.
Old Character, New Purpose
Creating the store meant transforming a former boot factory that had seen better days. The Martins wanted to retain as much of the historic property as was practical while creating an inviting, accessible retail environment.
“We wanted to bring the old into the new,” Julie says.
Original architectural elements remain, including an interior arch and old fire door. The Martins preserved vintage ceiling tile where possible, while the renovation added LED lighting, insulation, new windows, HVAC systems and an updated storefront.
Accessibility was particularly important to Julie, who wanted safe aisles, ramps and railings throughout the property.
Her goal was an open store that felt substantial without losing the personality of a hometown business.
“It had to be more than a mom-and-pop shop,” Julie says. “It had to have a grandiose feel but still warm and cozy.”
The result is about 8,000 square feet of selling space within an 8,900-square-foot operation, with additional space beingprepared for convenience lumber and future expansion of the lawn and garden department, including live plants.
Julie also mixed conventional hardware fixtures with pieces that give the store more personality. When a nearby furniture business closed, she acquired rustic bookshelves and tables that are now placed around the salesfloor.
A landing pad near the entrance changes with the seasons, displaying everything from grills and fire pits to outdoor furniture. Large front windows have become another merchandising tool. One EasyCare display used satin material to create the appearance of paint pouring from five-gallon buckets. Seasonal windows have become something local residents watch for throughout the year.
Learning What Henrietta Needs
Working with True Value, the store is increasingly tailored to its market.
Hardware, paint, lawn and garden, electrical and plumbing rank among the store’s top departments. Plumbing continues to expand, with products such as Fluidmaster repair items selling quickly. Milwaukee and DeWalt have a strong presence, while farm, ranch and equine products reflect the surrounding market.
Lawn and garden is another growth opportunity. The Martins own a property across the street that could support an expanded department, and repeated customer requests have convinced Julie that adding lumber also makes sense.
The store is learning in other ways.
Julie regularly uses True Value’s marketing resources, combining national campaigns and branding with posts about Henrietta businesses, schools and community events.
That local emphasis carries onto the salesfloor, where the eight-person team is encouraged to spend time with customers and understand the projects they’re working on.
“People want to stay local and not drive to Wichita [Falls],” Julie says. “Our goal is to make this store convenient to the community, but have what the community thrives on and needs.”
Customers are responding. The store reported about $576,000 in sales in 2025, while year-to-date transaction counts increased from about 3,000 to nearly 7,000.
The business also demonstrated its value when Henrietta needed it most.
During a winter storm in early 2026, the store remained open with adjustedhours and limited staffing while much of the town shut down. After critical products sold out, True Value arranged for an emergency truck carrying antifreeze, faucet covers and heaters.
That response reflects the service philosophy Julie emphasized from the Beacon Awards stage.
The store also supports local schools and National FFA Organization programs, the animal shelter, hospital events and other community organizations. Julie envisions more events inside the store as well, including workshops on basic home repairs and a seating area near the entrance where customers can have coffee and visit.
It all circles back to the role Howard Walker once imagined for himself.
“I’m about service because that’s what I believe we’re supposed to do,” Julie says. “We have to give back to the community.”
For her, the Beacon Award recognizes new-store excellence and an idea handed from one generation to another: that a business can succeed by becoming useful to the place it calls home.
