Passersby might have noticed one last exterior change to the Hub recently, and that is the installation of the new flagpole on the 111 side. As with everything else associated with this building, there's a story:
When we first inspected the roof of the building, we found a rusted old flagpole on the backside of the 111 side parapet. We know from the building's history that the parapet was rebuilt and raised in 1928 when Louis Kariel Sr. moved the shoe store to 111 from 113, where it had been since his uncle Mose Weisman opened it in 1897. And photos such as this from the late 1910s don't show it, so physical and photographic evidence makes clear that the flagpole dates from after 1928. The bolt holding it up had either been loosened to allow it to rotate down to the left
(where you can see it in this photo under the arrow), or it had simply fallen over - we don't know which.
Now the other interesting thing about this picture is what it shows across the street - the old First National Bank building built around the same time has a flagpole behind its parapet as well - it actually has one on both the Houston and Austin sides of the building. And so does Old City Hall on the square behind it, as shown in this old postcard - and again, built around the same time. Even Louis Sr.'s dad's store - the Marcus Kariel Clothing Store down the street from the Hub had a center-roof flagpole, as you can see in this picture (it is the large two-story building on the other side of Logan & Whaley in the 1910's picture, and so did the old Marshall National Bank building, flying a whopper in this photo.
So the physical evidence indicated that there was at one time a flagpole over the store, and it dated from after 1928, i.e. the time period when Mr. Kariel, Sr. ran the store, and was part of a tradition of local businesses (as well as civic buildings) of having flagpoles, including on this block of East Austin.
Louis W. Kariel, Sr., the second owner of the Hub Shoe Store, was a veteran of World War I (and a major in the Texas State Guard in World War II), and served as chairman of the Marshall city commission of Marshall from 1935 to 1947.
He wasn't a merchant by training, he was actually trained as a chemist at the University of Texas in Austin (graduated in 1917) and worked for several sugar companies before returning to Marshall in 1924 to help care for his mother, Hub owner Mose Weisman's sister — at which point he and another man bought the store from their uncle. Four years later Mr. Kariel bought out his partner and ran the store until 1969 when he handed the reins over to Louis, Jr. (naturally he kept coming in to work for a few more decades).
My guess from what I've read about Mr. Kariel is that his attitude about flags was a little like mine - if I'm going to have a building, by God it's going to have a flagpole on it.
It took several months looking for just the right product, but we eventually found a flagpole that screwed into the back side of a parapet, and a solar-powered flagpole light to light Old Glory at night time. I have to admit that it's not the most visible flag downtown, but it brings the 111 building one step closer to what it probably looked like during the 1940's when Mr. Kariel ran the store and waited for Louis Junior to quit fooling around at the University of Texas and in the Navy and come on back and help out with the store.
So if you're visiting the Hub and you see some pictures of a distinguished looking older gentleman in dark glasses, that's who it is - the Hub's second owner and proud UT graduate and veteran, Louis W. Kariel, Sr. The guy who put the flagpole on the building.