Gonzales County Jail
Courthouse Sq. on St. Lawrence St., Gonzales, TXThe Gonzales County Jail, built in 1887, replaced the first jail which was removed in 1885 after 40 years of debate over the need for a new building. The jail has served in its original capacity as a prisoner lock-up on the upper stories, and sheriff and jailer's offices on the first floor since its beginning, but a new County Jail is under construction immediately to the south of the present jail. Because of a lack of heating, cooling, and sanitary facilities, the antiquated jail is limited to temporary detention in its use as a lock-up. Most offenders must be taken to nearby Seguin jail until the new jail is completed.
Gonzales, previous to becoming the county seat of Gonzales County in 1836, was the capital of Empresario Green DeWitt's colony from 1825 to 1836. Major James Kerr, acting for Empresario DeWitt, designed the town in forty-nine blocks with seven public squares forming the shape of a Maltese Cross. The square on which the Jail and Courthouse (see National Register submission for Gonzales County Courthouse, July 10, 1970) is located is the hub of the cross.
The County Commissioners' Court, in 1885, hired Eugene T. Heiner as architect and Henry Kane as a contractor to construct the jail. Kane made the bricks for the building at his kiln on the Guadalupe River. The completed structure cost $21,660.20 and was accepted by the County Court on January 28, 1887. It included a gallows, removed in 1951; an underground passage that connected the jail and the courthouse, intended for the transporting of prisoners; and a top floor, built to hold women.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
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.