Court Hardware, the family-owned store at 2830 South Main St. that has sold tools and supplies to Stafford residents since 1945, is the first business honored under the city's relaunched Business Spotlight program.
The City of Stafford announced the relaunch on Friday, Aug. 7, calling Court Hardware a store that has served the community whenever residents are in need. The program had been in development since at least Jan. 27, when SEDC Director William K. Bostic Jr. brought the idea to the board and Economic Development Administrator Joe Esch began designing a recognition process, including banners to be displayed in honored businesses, according to SEDC meeting minutes.
A store older than the city itself
Court Hardware predates Stafford's incorporation. The Court family's commercial roots in the area stretch to 1919, when Charles Vincent DeCorte, who later Americanized his surname to Court, moved to Stafford to run a general mercantile store selling groceries, dry goods and hardware. The store was formally reorganized as Court Hardware in 1945.
The business survived two fires, in 1932 and 1953. It rebuilt both times. After the second blaze, the family constructed a shopping center that housed a drug store, food market, post office and the hardware store. C.V. Court served on Stafford's first city council in 1956. His sons, Julius Charles Court and Charles Vincent Court Jr., took over in 1960 and moved the store to its current South Main Street location in 1968, according to a Texas Historical Commission marker erected at the site in 2018.
"I think it would be the oldest Fort Bend County, family-owned and operated business in existence," Charles Vincent Court Jr. said in a May 2010 oral history interview with the Fort Bend County Historical Commission. Court Jr. worked at the store for 61 years before retiring in 2009. His son Chris Court took over the business at that time, according to the oral history.
Why it matters for Stafford's economy
Stafford is the largest city in Texas with no city property tax, having abolished it in 1995. The city funds operations through a 2% local sales tax and relies on more than 2,000 businesses and roughly 50,000 employees to generate that revenue. A recognition program that spotlights longstanding local businesses signals the SEDC's interest in retention alongside recruitment along the US-90A corridor.
Court Hardware is open Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The store is closed Sundays. The city has not announced when the next Business Spotlight honoree will be named or how often the program will rotate.
