Ginocchio Historic District

The history of Marshall, the county seat of Harrison County in northeast Texas, has been closely tied to the railroad, particularly since 1871 when the Texas and Pacific Railroad was chartered. As the only federally chartered railroad in Texas and one of few in the United States, the T & P was given the right to build from Marshall to San Diego, California, and granted 20 sections of land per mile. In 1873 Texas and Pacific acquired authority to lay tracts from Marshall to Texarkana. In that same year, their shops came to Marshall by an act of the Texas State Legislature which authorized a bond issue in Harrison County for $300,000 and the donation of 66 acres of land by the city. Thus, Marshall became the eastern terminus of the T & P railroad with the establishment of the general offices and shops in that city.

An individual who profited from the railroad boom following the Civil War was Charles A. Ginocchio. Born in Italy in 1844, he left with his family for Richmond, Virginia in 1848. Follow- ing the Civil War the Ginocchio family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. It was in Little Rock, the terminus of the Iron Mountain Railway, that Ginocchio noticed the lack of dining and room accommodations for passengers. conceiving the idea to establish restaurants and hotels at the terminus of railroad lines, the prospered in the late nineteenth century as a commissary agent for the Texas and Pacific. In 1869 Charles married Roxana Walters and, after the birth of their first child in 1871, moved to Marshall. Ginocchio had had success with a restaurant in Texarkana and when he heard of the new Texas and Pacific railroad, chose to make his home in Marshall.
Ginocchio first operated the Ginocchio Depot Restaurant, next to the Express Company and Ticket office of the Railroad. Between 1893 and 1896 he built the Ginocchio Hotel in Marshall. In addition to these Marshall enterprises, he operated restaurants and hotels along the railroad lines in Arkansas, Texarkana, Longview, Mineola, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

The Ginocchio family first lived in a small one-story cottage in the 500 block of N. Washington. However, when Roxana's three orphaned nephews came to live with them in 1878, a larger house was needed for the expanded family. In 1886 Charles Ginocchio employed C. G. Lancaster to build a two-story house, utilizing the bricks made and fired on his property. He also employed the craftsmen at the T & P shops to mill the woodwork used in the interior.

A few years after completing his house, he began construction of the Ginocchio. Reported to be the "finest hotel between New Orleans and Denver," the first floor contained storefronts, a cafe, an elaborate lobby, a ballroom, a dining room with a wine c closet, a kitchen, and a pantry. There were 30 private hotel rooms on the second floor and 10 rooms on the third. The ballroom, main lobby, and cafe all have an entire north wall of double glass doors that open onto the terrace in front of the depot. During the immigration period of the early 1900s, when trainloads of families headed westward on the T&P, these doors were thrown open and the hotel served 300 to 400 people at a time on long trestle tables set up in the lobbies and the ballroom. Since the train schedule only allowed a 45-minute stop, the buffet method proved to be the most effective way to serve meals to the daily crowds. The Ginocchio continued to operate as a hotel until 1968 when it was restored and reopened only as a restaurant.

When the hotel was completed, Ginocchio built two one-story brick houses across Washington Street from his home. One of these was for Emile Meyers who operated a saloon in the new hotel. Meyers, a native of the Alsace-Lorraine, continued in business in the Ginocchio Hotel during prohibition by converting his enterprise into a soda fountain. Ginocchio rented the second brick house, located adjacent to the Allen residence. This house has since been demolished.

One of the nephews, George Signaigo, assisted Ginocchio with his restaurants and hotels. While serving as the bookkeeper at the Fort Worth hotel, George met Elizabeth Cook who he later married in 1898. After the death of Charles Ginocchio that same year, Signaigo handled his estate, selling the house to his wife's parents, the Behn Cooks, and eventually buying the hotel. When the T&P put diners on their trains, this ruined George's inherited businesses, so he sold all of his hotels around 1912 except for the Ginocchio. After the death of Mrs. Behn Cook in 1942, George Signaigo sold the house and hotel to the Democrats, who in turn sold both structures to the A. J. Pedisons in 1945. The Pedisons presently occupy the old Ginocchio House but sold the hotel to Hobart Key in 1968.

Several Victorian houses, contemporary with the Ginocchio structures, remain standing in the immediate vicinity. The Whaley House was built approximately the same year as the Ginocchio House on the adjacent lot. Paul Whaley, one of the city's most prominent merchants, owned a retail hardware store and eventually became President of the Logan and Whaley company in 1909. After marrying in 1884, he built this house for his bride c. 1886. The Allen House across the street was built c. 1890, while the Mitchell House on Bolivar Street was built c. 1900. On the corner of Bolivar and Repose Streets stands the elaborate two-story Queen Anne style frame house built by a prominent Marshall doctor c. 1895. Finally, the earliest residence remaining in the area is the Patillo House built c. 1866 by William Patillo, a teaming and transport contractor.

The railroad structures have also been included in the district boundaries, as they have direct significance to the development of the Ginocchio Historic District. The 1908 passenger depot was erected on the site of an earlier depot built c. 1870. The structure is an interesting example of the Mission Revival style, a typical early twentieth-century depot design, which is rapidly disappearing. The Marshall Depot has been preserved by utilizing the building as a passenger station for Amtrak. fire destroyed the original T&P shops in 1971 and only the foundations are now visible. However, the c. 1900 shops remain to the south of the ruins. In addition, a unique sight is the two steel water towers used during the steam locomotive era.

Finally, the Marshall Cemetery, a natural boundary for the district, is significant as the city's oldest cemetery. The tract was donated to the city in the 1840s and was used until the mid-1890s. Buried here are more leaders of the Republic of Texas and the early statehood period than any other single cemetery in the state, except perhaps in Austin. Among those buried in the Marshall cemetery are former Texas Governor, Edward Clark (1815-1880); Confederate General and Veteran of the Texas Revolution and Mexican War, Walter P. Lane (1817-1892); Confederate General, Horace Randel (1833-64); and former State Supreme Court Justice, John T. Mills (1817-1871).

The Ginocchio Historic District, presently threatened by urban renewal activities, is important to Marshall as a tangible link with her railroad heritage. Concerned Marshall citizens, realizing the value of the area, are currently trying to draft a historic zoning ordinance to declare the area a historic district.