Whetstone Square (Marshall, Texas)

 store / shop, historic town square

Whetstone Square is located in the city center and is surrounded by restaurants, boutiques, museums, and law offices. It is named after Peter Whetstone who donated 160 acres of his land for the county seat in 1841. Most addresses in the city are reckoned from their distance from the Old Courthouse in the center of the square. The current Harrison County courthouse, the Sam B. Hall Federal Courthouse, and the city's tallest building, the Hotel Marshall, are also blocks adjoining the square. The square has been at the heart of the city and county's political and social life for over one-hundred and sixty years; having played host to pro-secession rallies, civil rights marches, lynchings, and even during a war bond rally in the 1940s a German submarine.