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.

McKinney, Texas: Unique by Nature

Have you been to McKinney?  I’d always heard that I needed to visit their historic downtown. Oddly enough, my hairdresser had her shop in downtown McKinney so I would go there twice a year and yet I never stopped and looked around. So when it was time for another field trip, I picked McKinney. Here’s what I learned.

McKinney was founded in 1846 on land donated by William Davis. It wasn’t the first county seat for Collin County. That honor belonged to a small town called Buckner which was about three miles away. In 1848, a vote was taken to move the county seat to McKinney and the motion passed.

The first store was the Lovejoy grocery, which moved from Buckner to McKinney. The “shack” that was the store was physically moved to McKinney by its owner John Lemuel Lovejoy. He was the first settler and bought several other lots in McKinney. As a reverend, he also started the First Methodist Church. He eventually sold his land and moved to Denton.

There have been four courthouses in McKinney starting with a rough pine lumber building that was built in 1848. The second courthouse was built in 1856. It was replaced in 1874 with this courthouse and was the tallest building north of San Antonio.  

In 1927, extensive exterior and interior renovations to this courthouse included the removal of the mansard roof and tower caps, as well as the addition of a third story and basement. Overseen by W.A. Peters of the Paris, Texas Architectural firm of Sparger and Peters, the work resulted in a classical revival edifice. Original features included tripartite windows with flanking double classical columns on the north and south facades. The new structure was commonly known as the Temple of Justice, and continued to be the center of activity for city and county functions. It remained in service as a courthouse until 1979. Now it's the McKinney Performing Arts Center.

Inside the courthouse basements, there are remnants of old Jim Crow. There are signs for the bathrooms that distinguish between White and Colored. The signs have been preserved so that we won’t forget.

Dr. Benjamin M.E. Smith, one of the city's first doctors, founded Smith Drug Co. around 1859 with his sons and partners.  Smith Drug moved to the square when the Jesse Shain building was constructed about 1900. It was the longest operating business and the state’s oldest pharmacy until it closed in 2008.

In 1864 John Heard moved to McKinney from Arkansas. With his brother, he started the JS and SD Heard Mercantile Company on the first floor of this building. On the second floor was the Heard Opera House until a fire destroyed it in 1910. Now it's a winery.

Heard also had a hand in starting the Interurban railway, a passenger service that ran from Denison to Dallas and on to Waco. He was instrumental in bringing the first flour mill to McKinney as well as an oil mill. This is all that's left of that rail line in McKinney. 

In 1911, the McKinney Post Office was built. It served as a government building until 1959 when it was sold to Collin County. In 1982, it became the Collin County History Museum. It’s free and open to the public Thursday through Saturday from 10 – 4. It had all kinds of artifacts related to the history of the city and the county. It's well worth a visit.

Just off the square on Kentucky street, you can find the Old Collin County Jail. Completed in 1880, the two-story building contained the jailer’s quarters at the front of the building while the mid-portion of the building contained the cellblocks. In 1900, new detention cells were added while the other cells were restored. A dungeon-like cell with a trap door was added in order carry out executions. At one time, the prison could house 50 prisoners.

The last man to be executed here was Ezell Stepp in 1922. He was hanged for the murder of Hardy Mills. Apparently, Hardy Mills went missing one morning on the way to work and he was found two weeks later, bound by wire, attached to a rail and dumped in a well on a local neighbor's farm. Ezell was convicted based on testimony by his nephew.  Was it because Hardy found out about Ezell's moonshining business? or because Ezell was having an affair with Hardy's wife and he became angry when it was discovered? We'll never know. Ezell proclaimed his innocence to the end.

The prison was closed in 1979 due to an increase in the county’s population and prison reforms that the building didn’t meet. Today, it houses offices for various businesses. Can you imagine working there today?

All of these buildings have some kind of history. The building in the middle of this photo is the Lovejoy Building. Built in 1926, it was home to J. C. Penney until they moved across the square. Then the K. Wolens store moved in.

This is the Pope-Silver Brothers building. This 1929 Art Deco building originally housed the Silver Brothers Dry Goods. In the 1940's, J. C. Penney moved to this building from across the square. It also housed Gambel's Drug Store where all the kids would hang out and drink milkshakes. 

I love the design across the top.

This is the First National Bank Building. Entrepreneur Francis Emerson (1815-1905) founded a McKinney Banking firm in 1869 which became the First National bank in 1882. First National bought this site in 1912 and built this classical Revival Style Building. Collin County National Bank, founded in 1883, occupied the building from 1935 to 1958 when they merged with First National Bank. They eventually merged with Texas American Bank and moved to 222 N Tennessee St. 

First Savings and Loan Association officed here from 1958 to 1973. Now it's a clothing shop.

This is the Central Continental Bank Building. The interior of the building was remodeled in the 1930s and much of the original fabric still exists. The building is the only downtown building with a full basement that is accessible from the street. The Central Continental Bank remained in this location from 1918 until 1963 when they moved to a new building at 221 N. Tennessee. The building has been a home to a variety of retail establishments in the basement and on the first floor while the second floor has provided office space for several businesses.

The McKinney Flour Mill was built in 1872 and processed most of the grain from the area. The coming of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad stimulated the grow the of the mill as well as the town. Now this place is an event venue.

That's just a small taste of McKinney. We were only there for a couple of hours so we didn't get a chance to drive around and look at all the historic houses (there are tons!) or the Chestnut Square Historic Village but I will!

McKinney's slogan is "Unique by Nature" which refers to its natural beauty, it's historic downtown and its sense of community. I'd say that about sums it up. If you have the chance to check it out, you should.

Plano, Texas: The Balloon Capital of Texas

In my quest to travel around see the cities in Texas, it occurred to me that I shouldn't ignore the cities that are in my own backyard, like Plano.

Plano is a suburb of Dallas to the north. It has a wealth of corporate headquarters like Toyota, Frito-Lay and JC Penney, to name a few. Every September, it hosts hot air balloon races, which is why it's called the Balloon Capital of Texas. But it wasn't always like this.

Plano was part of the Peters Colony, which was the name of an empresario land grant made in 1841 by the Republic of Texas to William Peters. It was his job to bring settlers to the area.

The first settlers to Plano were McBain Jameson and Jeremiah Muncey back in 1844. Unfortunately, that didn't go very well. They were killed during an Indian raid.

In 1851, William Forman moved here from Kentucky after having scouted the place out a few years before. He opened a general store and ran a post office out of his house. In 1852, a real post office was established and the town was named. The initial suggestions were Forman (after the guy that ran the General Store) and Fillmore (after the President). Both were rejected for Plano. William Forman became the first postmaster.

Plano was a farming town. The land grants were huge! 320 acres to a single man and twice that if he was married. Charles Shepard Haggard, another pioneer was just such a farmer. At one time he owned all the land along Park Blvd between Central Expressway and the Dallas North Tollway.

The Haggard Farm on Park Blvd at Custer Rd in Plano.

The family raised sheep and donkeys and also grew cotton. In 1872, the Houston and Texas Central Railway came through town and opened the market for their crops. In 1888, the St. Louis, Arkansas, and Texas Railway came through and made Plano a nerve center of commerce. The city was located in between McKinney and Dallas. 

In 1908, the interurban railway came to Plano. It was a passenger train that ran from Denison to Dallas and Waco. The train ran from 1908 to 1948. As cars became more common, ridership on the train went down. The depot is now the Interurban Railway Museum. It's free and well worth a visit. It's right next to the Plano Dart station.

This is Texas Electric Railway Car 360, manufactured in 1911 by the American Car Company of St. Louis. Originally  it was numbered car 11. The car measures 56 feet 10 inches long by 9 feet wide by 12 feet 9 inches high. Car 11 weighed 85,180 pounds, accommodated 62 passengers and was outfitted with 4GE73 Motors and 27MCB3X Brill trucks. In 1913, car 11 was renumbered to 360. In 1932, the car was modified to a rail postal office under specifications provided by the United States Post Office and is the last remaining example of a Texas Electric RPO. This car remined in service until the system ceased operation on December 31, 1948. I was told that this car was sitting on a farm being used for hay storage before it was donated to the museum and fully restored. This is one of the things you can see at the museum.

The W. R. George Building was built in 1896. William Ross George came to Plano from Kentucky in the late 1800's. This building housed his saddle and harness shop. In 2009, it was completely restored and now houses The Urban Crust and has a marvelous rooftop bar.

This building used to house the Mathews Department store. In 1906, Sidney Mathews opened this store and sold "most everything" from furniture to hardware to millinery. His wife and daughters used to make hats that were available for sale at this store. Now it's an event venue. 

Right next to that is the Louise Bagwell Sherrill Building which was originally the Farmers & Merchants Bank Building. Louise Bagwell Sherrill used to own the Plano Star Courier so I can only assume that at one point it housed the paper.

Back in 1885, the WD McFarlin building housed a grocery store. Later, it housed a Pharmacy owned by E.A Carpenter who was the son of RW Carpenter (for whom a school has been named). Edward was a pharmacist and, in 1895, bought the Schoolfield Pharmacy which was also located in this building. In 1908, he sold his business to the Allen Brothers.

This building was erected in 1895 after a fire destroyed the original building. It was shared space for the Plano First National Bank and the International Order of Odd Fellows Lodge. It was restored with this facade in 1936 and then updated again in 1958. When the Schell family bought the building they restored it back to the 1930's art deco facade. I read that the old bank vault is now a conference room. How cool to take all your calls there!

The Plano Lodge No 768 was built in 1898 and then restored in 1925. The Mason's still use this lodge today.

This is the First Christian Church of Plano, established in the mid-1850's by the daughter of William Forman (remember him?). The first church was a small building on the Barnett farm that was also used as a school. As the congregation grew so did the need for larger sanctuaries.  

In 1889, Henry and JM Carlisle opened the Plano Grocery Company at this location. It grew to be the largest grocery store in Collin County. They carried grain, hay, cotton seed, stapes and groceries. Sadly, the store closed in the 1930's, a victim of the Great Depression. Now this building is a mixed use multi-family/retail building.

This is the Aldridge House built in 1918 for CC and Elizabeth Aldridge. The marker states that the original house on this lot (built in 1890) was either demolished or completely rebuilt. CC Aldridge had a seed farm and believed in extending credit to farmers. He was a civic leader in his time as well. The house is privately owned. I always think I'd like to live in a historic house but then people like me would come by taking photos.

This is the Saigling House which currently holds the Art Center of Plano. It was built in 1918 by Celestine Saigling. In 1895, her husband Charles opened the Plano Milling Company. They milled flour, oats, bran and cornmeal to name a few things.

On this site in 1882 the Plano Institute was built. This would be before there was any school system in Plano. In 1891, the city took over. This building was built in 1924. After the school closed, the district took over the building to use as an administrative building.

In 1935, right next door to the school, the WPA built this gymnasium. Now it's an auditorium and its right across the street from Haggard Park.

So much history right up the street! Who knew? Now you do. Check it out!

Farmers Branch, Texas: The City in a Park

Farmers Branch is a suburb of Dallas that isn't very far from my house. It's a very low-key city. You don't hear about them in the news. It's like you wouldn't even know it's there unless you drove through on your way to some place else. But, that wasn't always the case.

Farmers Branch was part of the "Peters Colony", which was a section of land granted by the Republic of Texas to "Empresarios" who were then charged with settling the land. The first settlers, Thomas Keenan, Isaac Webb and William Cochran, came in 1842. But the Texian Land and Emigration Company advertised this community as far away as Europe.

The community was originally called Mustang Branch for the mustang grapes that grew along the creek but William Cochran eventually changed the name to Farmers Branch after all the rich farmland.

Another of the original settlers was Dr. Samuel Gilbert. Dr. Gilbert came to Texas about 1850. He settled first in Cass county and in 1852 married Julia Ann Ritchie (d.1881). Gilbert purchased 275 acres of land at this site about 1855 and by 1857 had this native limestone house constructed. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Gilbert operated a farm here, growing vegetable crops and raising livestock. A respected community leader, he helped outfit a local militia unit during the civil war and in later years held a number of local public offices. The house remained in the Gilbert family until 1937. 

In 1874 Dr. Gilbert was instrumental in bringing rail service to the Farmers Branch community when he sold part of his property to the Dallas & Wichita Railroad for a right-of-way through the area. Around 1877, the D&W built this depot in Farmers Branch located near the intersection of Valley View Lane and Denton Drive where the first railroad line reached the Farmers Branch and Carrollton area.  In 1881, Jay Gould and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad purchased the rail line, which runs from Dallas to Denton. The Interurban Railway electrified the line in 1924 and until 1931 ran as many as 50 scheduled trains per day.

I mentioned Isaac Webb as one of the original settlers. Webb's Chapel was a Methodist church established in 1845. Isaac was also the first postmaster for Farmers Branch. His daughter, Nancy, married Warren Taliaferro, a civil war veteran from Missouri, and they had a general store. W. Taliaferro and Sons opened its doors in 1901 and was located at the corner of Bee and Valley View Lane. The store was open until Taliaferro's death in 1929.

There was another General Store called Corbit's that was located at the corner of Valley View Lane and Elder Streets. They sold mostly groceries and even had a "meat cooler" where they stored meat that had been freshly butchered.

Valley View Lane was the "Main Street" of Farmers Branch.

In the 1930s, the gas station became an integral part of the landscape and our lives. By 1933, there were over 24 million registered automobiles in the United States, and stations became more complicated and sophisticated in design. A Texaco Gas Station was the first such business in the Farmers Branch area in the 1930s. Arthur Raymond "Ray" and Ina Millaway owned a Texaco Gas Station and a café right next door to each other in downtown Farmers Branch. Ina ran the café for over ten years. Ray was also one of the City's first councilmen. Descendants of this family are still in Farmers Branch.

Bill Dodson and his wife moved to Farmers Branch in the 1930's and commissioned contractor Ross Faulkner to design this house to Maude's specifications. It was completed in 1937. In January 1946, Bill learned the city of Dallas, with city limits then 12 miles distant, planned to annex the Farmers Branch community. He and his neighbors circulated a petition for a local incorporation election. Citizens voted approval, an in April, they elected Dodson the first mayor. 

These days, the original settlers would probably not recognize the place. 

Several companies, such as OxyChem, Celanese Corporation and Eyemart Express, have made Farmers Branch their home. The biggest employers of the city are, surprisingly, the IRS, a company called Feizy and another company called Anserteam, LLC. Coca Cola Enterprises has a presence here as well.

Farmers Branch is called the "City in a Park" because there are over 30 parks and gardens in the city. People come from all over to take advantage of the parks and walking trails. This is the Rose Garden of Farmers Branch.

If you're interested in the history of Farmers Branch, go to the Farmers Branch Historical Park at 2450 Farmers Branch Lane. It's a cool park that has all the historical buildings shown in the photos. Their website has tons of information. The park itself is free but I think if you want to go into the buildings as part of a tour, you have to pay. Check the website.