Brown County Jail
401 W. Broadway, Brownwood, TXThe Brown County Jail, constructed in 1902 and 1903, exemplifies the principles which governed jail design in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Designed and constructed by two of the leading jail companies in the South--Youngblood Brothers of Troy, Alabama; and Martin, Moodie & Co. of Comanche, Texas--the Brown County jail successfully assured the local population of their safety from various "lawless elements" while simultaneously conveying physical strength, impregnability, and the seriousness of incarceration to those who were imprisoned there. It was the first jail constructed in Texas by Youngblood Brothers, a firm that operates today as the Southern Steel Company, and which provided the equipment for many of America's largest prisons such as Riker's Island, New York. Architecturally, the Brown County Jail is one of the most significant turn-of-the-century jails in Texas.
Brown County, located near the geographical center of Texas, was created in 1856 and named in honor of Captain Henry S. Brown, a member of Green C. DeWitt's colony and a delegate from Gonzales to the Convention of 1832 at San Felipe de Austin. Settlement of the county was slow, due largely to its proximity to the Comanche frontier, and a chaotic period of lawlessness lasted well into the 1880s. Perhaps in response to this chaos, the county authorized the construction of its first jail in 1876, a structure that was located at the corner of North Fiske and Water streets.
In March 1880, the jail and nearby courthouse burned and all county records were lost. Subsequently, commissioners contracted with Martin, Byrne & Johnston in 1881, and this prominent firm completed a new Brown County Jail.
By 1901, the commissioners decided that the 1881 jail was insufficient for the county's needs. In an election held in December, voters authorized the issuance of $30,000 in bonds and the county took steps to acquire Block 9 of Brownwood proper from Brook Smith and the Brownwood Ice and Light Co. Simultaneously, the commissioners published a notice in the Dallas Daily News in which they requested that jail contractors submit plans, specifications, and bids by February 6, 1902, for the erection of a stone or brick fire-proof jail furnished with the latest improved steel cells and all other modern improvements.
A number of jail contractors bid on the Brown County Jail, and commissioners spent almost three days considering the alternatives. On February 6, they accepted the low bid of $24,925.60, awarding the contract to the firm of Martin, Moodie & Co. of Comanche, Texas, in partnership with Youngblood Bros. of Troy, Alabama, and appointed local architect and contractor William Hood as the superintendent of construction.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.