Very big day today on East Austin as the 1960's aluminum facade (near left) came down, revealing the existing facades of 111 and 113 E. Austin (far left, with 113 shown in 1908 and both about ten or fifteen years later). Exactly what either looked like today was unknown - we didn't know if we'd find brick, stucco, paint, or even facades chiseled off.
Louis and Audrey Kariel came down for the show (left is Louis with me in my new office - well, not quite yet an "office" although I did take one conference call there yesterday), as did Marshall's Main Street director Bo Ellis, Chamber president Connie Ware, city commissioner Chris Paddie, and other friends (I didn't realize quite how many were there until I start writing them just now, so I sure can't say I don't have community support!)
It was high five time 
when the first strips of aluminum siding came off the 113 side and we saw we had original brick, with only a coat or two of white paint over the original red brick. As the siding came down 
we could see that the original facade familiar from the 1908 picture at top left was undamaged, with even its original awning rings in place (father in law / general contractor shown for scale).
As the workers exposed the newer 111 side, we got surprise after surprise. First, we had stucco up top over a nice brick pattern base which mimiced but didn't exactly duplicate the 113 side, but it was undamaged as well. And while we expected to see some black tile based on study of one grainy photo from the 1950's (below) 
, no one remembered the red tile strip. Then came the big surprise - the big neon sign 
was still in place - and had a red and black Hub painted on it! 
Even Louis was taking pictures of the old sign. 
So lots of surprises, but all of them good.
Next step is to prepare the proposed elevations of the exterior so that we can get to work restoring them to whatever appearance works best for their new use.
