The courthouse square may have been covered in its Wonderland of Lights garb for only 11 years, but it was always a center of activities in Marshall, from market days at the turn-of-the-century to War Bond rallies in 1942. It [Image] is also the beginning of a walking tour of Marshall called "The Lale Trail," named for one of its prominent journalists and historians, Max Lale.
Marshall was founded in 1841 on land donated by Peter Whetstone. According to legend, Whetstone bribed the county commissioners with a jug of whiskey he had hidden in a hollow tree on the square.
Businesses soon lined the square and Austin Street to the north. This photograph was taken before the turn of the century. The streets are now paved, and Logan and Whaley Hardware, in the center of the photograph, the bank on the far left, and the Hub Shoe Store, distinguished by the large log-wagon hub in the right corner of the photograph, still operate.
Marshall made its fortune after the Texas and Pacific Railroad arrived in 1871. Only the 1912 passenger depot, now undergoing restoration, remains to remind visitors of the vast shops that once provided jobs for one in every four townspeople.