Old Panola County Jail

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm passin' it along to you. Somewhere in Panola County, there stands a brick building that has outlasted just about every use anyone could dream up for it. Two stories tall, Italianate and Romanesque influences working together like they belong there, a symmetrical facade with a projecting tower, arched openings, corbelled detailing along the edges.

The kind of structure that makes you stop and actually look. A man named J. N.

Carnes designed it, and when the work was done in 1891, Panola County had itself a jail. Not just any jail. The county jail.

And it would stay that way for sixty-two years. Sixty-two years of holding cells and hard brick and whatever stories walked through those arched openings. Now, 1953 rolls around, and the county is finished with it.

But the building isn't finished with anybody. It shifts roles, becomes a city jail, and keeps right on being useful until 1965. At that point you might figure a structure that old, that weathered by purpose, would just quietly disappear.

You'd be wrong. In 1988 a restoration project begins, and when it's through, that old Panola County Jail is a community museum and historical center. Designed to hold people in.

Now it draws people in. J. N.

Carnes built something in 1891 that nobody has quite been able to let go of, and honestly, standing in front of that tower and those corbelled details, you can see exactly why.

What the marker says

Designed by J. N. Carnes and completed in 1891, this structure served as the Panola County Jail for sixty-two years. The two-story brick building exhibits Italianate and Romanesque style influences and features a symmetrical facade with projecting tower, arched openings, and corbelled detailing. It was used as a city jail from 1953 to 1965. A restoration project begun in 1988 converted it to a community museum and historical center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967