Eddie and Edith Dong built Liberty Market in 1936 as a very modern store for its time. Ben Ong, a native of China, came to the United States in 1929 and began working at Liberty Market in 1936. He married Mae in a typical Chinese family arranged marriage that lasted 64 years. Ben and Mae managed the market and then purchased it from the Dongs in 1943. When the Ongs enlarged the store in 1957, Mae Ong designed the neon sign with the star over the "I" in Liberty, and the sign remains on display in front of the building. In the early 1980's, the market was purchased by the Sam Brommert family. In 2006, the Johnston family purchased the building, and Joe and Cindy Johnston and David and Kiersten Traina reopened it as a restaurant in 2008. A fire pictured below took place in October 1938, and the REO Speedwagon fire truck in the photo is now on display at the Gilbert Historical Museum at the southwest corner of Elliot and Gilbert roads.