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CHARLES MARSHALL
(1848-1928)
Its a representative warm and humid August afternoon, and I seek refuge and solace in the shade and serenity of Marshall Park. The bandstand is silent, the depot across Washington Avenue has been closed to passengers and freight for decades, and only an occasional fast freight roars through Ocean Springs to remind one of the railroad era of yore.
If these were times past, perhaps I would be waiting to board a train or meet arriving friends or relatives from New Orleans. Unfortunately it is 1993, and all that remains of the railroad era is the depot, a few railroad worker homes, and Marshall Park.
Marshall Park was the idea of the Ocean Springs Civic Federation, an organization formed in 1911, to to promote civic improvements within the city. Under the leadership of Mrs. Charles N. MacLouth and Mrs. Theodore Bechtel (1869-194 6), the President and Secretary-Treasurer of that organization respectively, the Ocean Springs Civic Federation entered into an agreement on August 23, 1911 with the L&N Railroad. This agreement was to lease from the L&N Railroad a portion of their Station Ground at Ocean Springs for a public park. The land for the proposed park was described as follows:
A strip of land lying on the south side of the track of the New Orleans & Mobile Division of the L&N Railroad, beginning at a point 175 feet east of mile post No. 727 on the line between the lands of said Railroad Company and the lands to be leased to said Civic Federation and running in an easterly direction with said Railroad a distance of 270 feet on the north line and 273.7 feet on the south line to the line between the lands of said Railroad Company and the lands to be leased to said civic Federation said strip being 100 feet wide outside of a line 32 feet from the center of the main track of said Division, on east end of said lot, and 90 feet wide outside of a line 31 feet from the center-line of the main track of said Division.
The contract between the Ocean Springs Civic Federation and the L&N Railroad for the lease was written as follows:
Witnesseth, that for and in consideration of a rent of one dollar per year, to be paid by the said Civic Federation, the said Railroad Company hereby rents and leases said land to the said Civic federation for the term of 10 years from the date hereof, and the said Civic Federation accepts the permission of said Railroad Company to so hold as its tenant said land, and hereby covenants and agrees, and binds itself, its heirs and assigns, that it and all others who may claim, use, occupy, or enjoy said premises or any por tion of them, by, through, or under it in anyway, will hold