San Saba County Jail

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm going by what the official marker says, right there in San Saba County. Now settle in, because this one's got stone walls, a jail break, and a price tag that'll make you do a double take. Back in 1884, San Saba County put up a jail.

Not just any jail. The oldest existing public building the county has to its name. They built it out of blue limestone, in what the marker calls Italianate Texas style, which is a real thing and it sounds exactly as serious as it looks.

The whole structure ran the county thirteen thousand dollars, and the lot itself cost three hundred more. Now in 1884, that was not pocket change. That was a statement.

San Saba County was saying: we mean business. The walls went up, the limestone held, and somebody had to keep watch over the whole operation. So the jailer lived right there on the first floor.

Not nearby. Not down the street. On the first floor, inside those blue limestone walls, close enough to hear every creak and complaint the building had to offer.

And for a while, that arrangement must have seemed perfectly sufficient. Then came 1886. Somebody, or maybe more than one somebody, decided those limestone walls and that first-floor jailer were not going to hold them.

There was a jail break. Now the marker doesn't tell us who, or how, or how far they got. It just tells us what came next.

After that break, the county threw up a twelve-foot-high board fence around the place. Twelve feet. That is not a suggestion.

That is a county that has learned its lesson and is not interested in learning it twice. That fence stood for its time, and eventually it was replaced, as the marker notes, but the limestone, that blue Italianate limestone from 1884, that's still standing. Oldest existing public building in the county, holding its ground the same way it always has.

What the marker says

County's oldest existing public building. Erected in 1884, the structure cost $13,000 and lot $300. Jail was built of blue limestone in Italianate Texas style. A 12-foot-high board fence (built after an 1886 jail break) has been replaced. Jailer lived on first floor.