Marshall, Texas: The Culture Capital of East Texas

In our travels through East Texas, we stopped in Marshall. Why you ask? Because it’s the culture capital of East Texas! Did you know Marshall was the birthplace of Boogie Woogie? I had no idea.

Harrison County was established in 1839. There was some discussion about where the county seat would be. In 1841, Peter Whetstone offered some of his land for a courthouse, a church and school. The offer was accepted, and Marshall was born. It was named for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

Harrison County has had five courthouses. The first is the standard log building. The second was built around 1849 and was most likely built with slave labor. By 1889, they'd outgrown that courthouse so they built another.

Unfortunately, this beautiful courthouse burned in 1899. Luckily the court records were saved. In 1901, the fourth courthouse was built.

This courthouse still stands in the center of the town square. In 1964, another courthouse was built off the square but the voters opted to keep this courthouse and I'm glad they did. They still have offices here on the third floor so it remains the seat of government, though most of the action takes place across the street.

The first and second floors of this courthouse make up the Harrison County Historical Museum. This is a view from the top of the stairs of the second floor. It's a beautiful courthouse. The Museum is very well done and it's free.

Marshall was the first town in Texas to have a telegraph. In 1854, the local paper had a telegraph link to New Orleans which gave them the scoop on the latest National News. This is Telegraph Park and it's on the square to the left of the courthouse.

Built in 1915 and originally called the Marshall Federal Building and US Post Office, this building was renamed in 1994 for Sam B. Hall, Jr who was a district judge and state representative.

Up until 1910, Marshall had a volunteer fire department. In 1926, they built the Central Fire Station, called "Old Central". On the courthouse square, it's now the Old Central Office Building.

This is the Grand Marshall. It used to be a hotel. Built around 1930 by Sam Perkins, part of it caught fire in 1949. It wasn't until 1956 that a renovation took place. Unfortunately, the renovation was poorly done and the hotel mismanaged forcing it to close. It is now part of the East Texas Baptist University.

This is a bit of a heart breaker. Until December 9, 2024, this was the First Methodist Church. It was built in 1861 most likely by slave labor. During the Civil War, the basement of this church was used to store supplies for the Confederacy. 

On the morning of December 9, 2024, the church caught fire and this is what is left.

By 1860, Marshall was one of the wealthiest towns in East Texas. There were tons of cotton plantations and, as a result, a lot of enslaved people, the most in the whole state of Texas. After the war, Marshall was the location of a Freedman's Bureau and in 1873, Wiley College was founded.

It's a beautiful campus. In 1882, it was certified by the the Freedman's Aid Society and is one of the oldest predominantly Black colleges west of the Mississippi. It's named for Isaac Wiley who was the Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church that founded the school.

In 1907, the school was granted $15,000 by the Carnegie Foundation for a library. In 1967, a more modern library was erected and this building became an administration building. It's one of the few Carnegie Library buildings left in the state.

Marshall, originally located on several stagecoach lines, was considered the Gateway to Texas. In the 1870's, the citizens voted for a $300,000 bond subsidy and the city of Marshall donated land to the Texas and Pacific Railway if they would establish a center in Marshall. And they did. This is the Marshall Depot. It was built in 1912 and is the only building left of the 75 building shop complex the Texas and Pacific had in Marshall at one time. 

The shops they had included the head house that was the entryway to this tunnel that is used to get to the passenger station from the parking lot, a car shop where they built all types of train cars, the paint shop, the freight depot and the coach shop. The last T&P passenger train ran in 1970 and the shops closed in 1971. The Amtrak train started passenger service again in 1974. That service is still available today.

The Union Pacific Caboose on display. I read that the caboose was where the train personnel did their thing. The conductor did his paperwork here and the brakeman would come in here to rest.

This stove (currently at the Harrison County Historical Museum) was located in the caboose and this is where the train employees would cook their dinner or use it to keep warm. You forget that they were on the train, just like the passengers and they needed to eat too!

This is the Ginocchio Hotel and Restaurant. It was built in 1896 and it is located right outside the tunnel where passengers would disembark. It offered stores, a restaurant and a 40 room hotel. It closed in 1967 when the Pedison brothers, who managed the hotel, retired. In 2017, it was renovated and the restaurant opened back up. I wish I'd realized that as we'd have eaten there.

On the second floor of the railroad museum is the Boogie Woogie exhibit. So this is some rockin' piano music that originated here in Marshall (according to the museum). The Texas and Pacific Railroad had their headquarters here and there were several African Americans that worked for the railroad in the 1870's. "The workers would entertain themselves with a piano in "barrel houses". Not trained in classic piano, the workers began to play the piano almost like a drum...leading to the 8-beats-to-the-bar rhythm.". There was an older fella there at the museum that asked if we remembered boogie-woogie. The guy at the desk was like, "That's from the 1800's! None of us remember it!". It was kind of funny. In his defense, he was probably thinking of the more recent contributors, like Huddie "Ledbelly" Ledbetter. 

Marshall had a very large Jewish community. This is the Hochwald House. Isaac Hochwald has a connection to my favorite city, Galveston. When his mother died, his father put him in the Children's Home. When Ike was 11, he was "discharged" to Lionel Kahn in Marshall Tx. Lion and his brother, Emanuel, were bachelors and they ran a store called Great Railway Supply Store. Eventually, they put Ike to work. By the time he was 25, he'd married and become quite successful in the store. He built this house in 1895 and was involved in the Jewish community. Isaac died in 1956. 

The Weisman-Hirsch House sits on land that was part of the 1836 land grant from the Republic of Texas to Peter Whetstone. Joe Weisman was from Syracuse, NY but came to Marshall in 1866. In 1878, he opened his own department store. This land was purchased by Abraham Young and sold to Joe when he married Abraham's daughter, Lena. Their first house was destroyed by fire. This house was erected in 1901. It remained in the Weisman Hirsch family until 1972.

Another significant family in Marshall was the Starr family. James Harper Starr owned a land management company. They basically bought and sold land. They also helped the railroad company get the land they needed to expand. This is the Starr Family Home Historic Site. It's $5 a person to go in and it's run by the Texas Historical Commission. Definitely worth a visit. The house was built in 1870 by James Franklin Starr, the son of James Harper Starr. They had six daughters and chose to "home-school" them by hiring a teacher that lived onsite. In addition to her salary, she got room, board and laundry.

The Starr family lived in the house until the 1980s, so over 100 years. They updated it to a certain extent. We asked about AC and the answer was window units. The house was donated to the Texas Historical Commission in the mid-1980s. Shortly after, the did a big renovation where they (1) installed central heat and air and (2) they restored the house back to its 1870s appearance, removing updated kitchen and bathroom items. For an in depth look at the Starr Family Home Historic Site click here.

Just as the house was completed, Clara's (Frank's wife) step-father passed away. They invited her mother to live with them and she built her own wing onto the house. She had her own separate entrance, a small foyer, this suite and her own bathroom. It's a pretty nice space.

A few other cool things in Marshall, Texas. This is the Elks Lodge. It was built in 1912 and served the local lodge until the 1970s. It was abandoned and eventually sold and since been restored. I thought I saw that it was a rentable space.

There are five museums in Marshall, Texas. The Harrison County Historical Museum, the Texas Pacific Railroad Museum, The Starr Family Home Historic Site, The Memorial City Hall and this one, the Michelson Art Museum. This museum is free and was originally built to house art done by Leo Michelson.

They have two galleries in the museum. One was a painting exhibit where they had this beauty. It's by Leo Michelson and its called "Zinnias".

Then they had a photography exhibit. This one is called Mill Pond, Caddo Lake Texas by David H. Gibson. I liked this photo quite a bit. We googled Mill Pond and found we weren't that far so we went.

Caddo Lake State Park is in Karnack, Texas (Birthplace of Lady Bird Johnson!). It's quite beautiful out here. Very peaceful and I imagine that if we'd been here in the spring, it would be quite green. 

I liked Marshall. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express off I-20. We were at the very end of a dead end road. They had all your basic fast food chains. There were some restaurant chains like Applebee's, Chili's and Golden Corral. Most of the restaurants were local or regional chains. We ate at a place called McGarity's Restaurant and Saloon. It was in the lobby of a Clarion Pointe Hotel (which is part of the Choice Hotel chain). It was very odd to go to that hotel looking for a restaurant. The food was okay, depending on what you got. I got fish and chips that were great. John got corned beef and cabbage that was not. Still, it was a different experience.

They had a lot of good looking Mexican Restaurants that I would have liked to try, Jose Tequila's, The Jalepeno Tree to name a couple.

There was a Kroger and a WalMart plus all of the dollar store options (Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar General).

There are 23K people in Marshall and it's the largest city in Harrison County. The major employers are Blue Cross, Blue Shield; Christus Good Shepard Medical Center; Eastman Chemical Company.

While I find the town fascinating, I'm not sure that I could live there. The vibe is very slow and it feels very small town. I like all the history and the museums and I would love to explore the town further but I think it's a tad too small of a town for my taste. Having said that, I find it's definitely worth a visit, especially if you're into history.

The moniker of Cultural Capital of East Texas is appropriate. There were all kinds of people here, especially after the Civil War. Everyone brought their own heritage and it's all on display in Marshall.