Amarillo: Faces, Places & Open Spaces

THE NUNN
COMPANY,
LTD.
Above: Nunn Electric was part of the
vibrant business community along historic
Polk Street in 1915.
Below: Nunn Electric, seen here in 1928,
is one of the oldest continuously operated
businesses in Amarillo.
The story of The Nunn
Company parallels the story
of Amarillo; they have grown
up together. First established
in 1910, The Nunn Electric
Company was started by John
Lindsey Nunn, later acquired
by Carl Hare, Sr., and is one
of the longest continually run
businesses in Amarillo. Just
like Amarillo, The Nunn
Company has prospered and
weathered storms and economic downturns.
Nunn Electric Company began by providing
items like wire, connectors, and insulators
for early telephone companies in the region.
The company evolved into the retail sale of
electrical supplies and appliances with Nunn
operating retail outlets throughout North
and West Texas, eastern New Mexico, and
adjacent Oklahoma.
Hare, Sr., came to Nunn’s attention in 1925.
Hare was working in Nunn Electric’s Wichita
Falls, Texas, store. He had taken leave from a
job at T & P Railroad to see if he was more
suited for sales. He quickly sold $50,000
worth of RCA Orthophonic Victrolas, and
Nunn, being suitably impressed, hired him as
a manager in his Amarillo store, and offered
him a partnership as well. Hare packed up his
wife Zula and moved to Amarillo in 1926; and
from that time to present, the Hare family has
been involved with the company.
Hare went to work in the store at 425
Polk Street, Nunn Electric’s first downtown
Amarillo location. The inventory was primarily
Frigidaire refrigerators, RCA Victrolas and
records, and lighting fixtures. Soon, the store
began selling wholesale electrical supplies and
would continue to do so for decades. In 1936,
Hare bought Nunn’s interest in the company.
Nunn moved on to be involved in utility
companies, real estate, and newspaper
publishing, and Hare, being a natural
salesman took over the company. Hare
had an excellent partner in his wife,
Zula who worked tirelessly providing
stability and business sense that kept
the company going during the hard
times. Zula was one of the smartest
businesswomen in Amarillo during
the Depression and helped the company
stay solvent. During the 1930s,
Hare, then no longer a Frigidaire
dealer, began to sell Zenith radio
products, branched out into wholesale
appliance and radio sales, and
expanded to a second retail location
in Lubbock.
During World War II as materials
became scarce, and because merchandise
was hard to come by, Hare closed
the Lubbock store and became a contractor
for the government. At the end
of World War II, Hare converted his
business completely to a wholesale
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