Old Stone Prison

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, folks, my job is just to do it justice. Now, Wise County has got itself some stories, but this one starts with stone and labor and a building that refused to quit being useful. Sometime around 1859, prison labor raised up the first stone house in Decatur.

Think about that for a moment. The very first stone structure in that whole town, and it was built by men who were themselves confined, there's a certain weight to that history you don't just set aside. The main house served as the residence of the sheriff or deputy.

You lived where you worked in those days, and your work was keeping order on a hard frontier. But the real story was downstairs. The basement, that was the jail.

Whatever poor soul found themselves on the wrong side of Wise County law was headed underground, beneath the very floors where the law itself took its supper. And speaking of supper, here's the detail that'll stick with you. Meals didn't come through a door, didn't come down a staircase.

There was a dumb-waiter located outside the east end of the house. Food went in from outside, traveled down, and arrived in that basement. Practical, yes.

But if you were sitting in that jail, waiting on a meal delivered through the wall like you'd already been forgotten by the world above, well, that's a feeling the stone walls probably remembered long after the prisoners were gone. The county held onto the property until 1888, then sold it to A. H.

Whitehead. And here's where this old stone building starts showing its range. It became the city water works, served in that capacity all the way until 1938.

A jail turned utility, keeping the town running instead of keeping men locked up. After that, it settled into private hands, serving as a residence until 1967, when the Wise County Historical Society stepped in and purchased it as a museum. From prison labor to prison, from water works to private home to museum, that first stone house in Decatur has outlasted just about every category anyone tried to put it in.

Some buildings just insist on surviving.

What the marker says

First stone house in Decatur. Erected by prison labor about 1859. Main house was residence of sheriff or deputy. Basement was used as jail. Meals were sent down a dumb-waiter located outside the east end of the house. County sold property in 1888 to A. H. Whitehead. Used as city water works until 1938. Kept as private residence until 1967 when purchased by Wise County Historical Society as museum. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968.