The Houston Jail is a historic jail building in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Winston County, Alabama Winston County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,540. Its county seat is Double Springs. Known as Hancock County before 1858, "ACES Winston County Office" (links/history), Alabama Coope ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on June 5, 1975.

History

The building is the only known surviving

log Log most often refers to: * Trunk (botany), the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, called logs when cut ** Logging, cutting down trees for logs ** Firewood, logs used for fuel ** Lumber or timber, converted from wood logs * Logarithm, in mathe ...

jail in the state and the only public building surviving from the time that the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

was located in Houston. It is believed by architectural historians to have been built circa 1868, when the now destroyed courthouse is known to have been constructed. Houston was made the seat in 1858, but the minutes from a grand jury meeting in 1867 reported the need to build a courthouse and a jail. The county seat was moved to

Double Springs Double Springs is a town in Winston County, Alabama, United States. The city is the county seat of Winston County. The county seat was initially located at Houston, but by referendum in 1883, Double Springs prevailed and it was removed to there. ...

in 1884, resulting in Houston shrinking to the small unincorporated community that it is today. It was converted into a residence for the poor in 1933, with the original split shake roof replaced with one of galvanized metal at this time. The roof has since been restored back to shake.

Architecture

The jail is built of large squared logs joined by half notched corners. It measures with a front gabled roof. The interior is divided into two rooms with an interlocking log wall. A full raised foundation of

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

supports the structure. The interior of the cell features continuous boards, turned at right angles to the logs and secured in place with wooden nails to prevent prisoners from sawing their way out. Likewise, the ceiling is formed by closely spaced logs and the floor is plank over similarly spaced logs. The small square windows originally featured meshed iron bars. The original door was made of three solid layers of plank boards laid at angles to one another.

References

External links

Houston Historical Society: Houston Historic Jail
{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Winston County, Alabama Government buildings completed in 1868 Jails on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Defunct prisons in Alabama Jails in Alabama 1868 establishments in Alabama