1934 - Old Somervell County Jail - Glen Rose, TX - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

Well maintained since its construction in 1934, the old Somervell County Jail stands at the site of its preceding structure that had been built in 1884. The current ashlar limestone building measures 36 feet across and 27 feet 2 inches deep and has a flat roof that slopes slight to the northwest in order to drain through two metal downspouts on the northwest side. Around the four sides of the building at the cornice is a double row of protruding stones creating an attractive corbelled trim. All of the window and door openings have heavy concrete lintels. Interior walls of the building are also constructed from concrete. All of the windows on the second story are six-over-six wooden sashes fitted with fine steel mesh screens in wooden frames and equipped with substantial iron bars to deter the escape of inmates. On the ground floor all of the windows are of six-over-six sash design with the exception of two smaller three-over-three wooden sashes. All of the lower-floor windows are fitted with fine steel mesh screens in wooden frames but no iron bars. The front of the jailhouse has its principal entry, a substantially built single wooden door fitted with three small fixed glass panes and having a hinged wooden screen. Over the entry is a small flat-top wooden awning supported on a pair of wooden brackets, while a low concrete porch doubles as a doorstep. The ground floor of the front also has two six-over-six wooden sash windows and one three-over-three wooden sash window, as well as three six-over-six wooden sash windows on the upper floor. The center of the cornice on the front has a stepped stone frame for a white marble plate bearing the names of county officials and the date, 9 August 1934. The northwest side of the building has a single-doorway entry fitted with a solid door and a wooden screen. This side has but one window, a six-over-six wooden sash on the second floor. The rear of the building, facing the northeast, has two six-over-six and one three-over-three wooden sash windows at ground level, and four six-over-six sash wooden windows at the upper level. The southeast-facing wall has no openings on the upper level and two six-over-six wooden sash windows opening into the first floor.

Beginning in 1884, Lot 11, Block 2, in the original plat for the town of Glen Rose served as the site for the jail serving Somervell County. There the county erected its first jail, a single-story stone building that housed both the sheriff's family and prisoners. Iron bars restrained the prisoners in their part of the building, which for several years had only a dirt floor, a wood heating stove, and no glass in the windows. Minutes of the county commissioners' court show repeated expenditures over the years for plumbing and roof repairs, suggesting that these represented chronic maintenance problems. By the 1930s the conditions in the Somervell County Jail had deteriorated to the point that the county had to pay to have its long-term prisoners housed in the jails of other counties. With the start of the New Deal during the Great Depression with the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1933, the United States government began its first efforts through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to give jobs to unemployed people. One of the earliest of these activities was a program whereby the agency provided money to the individual state welfare departments to fund projects that would give jobs to these unemployed workers. Somervell County received a share of these federal funds and used some of them to build a new county jail and to construct two new public toilets on the courthouse square (Properties #2 and #3, Contributing). The county received $1,600 in federal money for the jail from the Texas Relief Commission to pay for labor, while the county commissioners provided construction materials. Work began in summer 1934. To save money, the county recycled the 1880s iron cells from the old jail, installing them on the second floor of the new facility. Before the end of the year, the new building was ready for occupancy, satisfying all of the requirements at the time for a modern jail. The two-story building contained quarters for the sheriff and his family on the ground floor, while the upper level housed prisoners. Though the facility was a great improvement over the old jail, it was by no means perfect. Numerous prisoners effected escapes, one at least three times. On another occasion inmates cut iron bars, soaped their torsos, and then pushed their naked bodies between the remaining bars to slip out to freedom. Even though it was still in use housing prisoners, the building received a Texas Historical Marker in 1962. By 1984 the Somervell County Jail had outlived its useful life as a calaboose. Sheriff Frank Laramore complained to the press, “This [jail] is totally inadequate for keeping anybody any length of time at all.” Consequently the county commissioners in 1984 voted to build a new Somervell County Law Enforcement Center that took the incarceration role away from the still handsome stone building. After considering other options, the commissioners for several years turned the building over to the Somervell County Historical Commission, which maintained offices there and offered tours of the structure. Then with changes in direction for the commission, the old jail fell into its present vacant state providing storage.

When logging a visit to a waymark in this category, please provide one or more photos taken by yourself, and note down your impressions and any background information you may have.