Red River County Jail
Clarksville, Red River County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This building was completed in 1889 as the second jail for Red River County. Architects Maj. S. B. Haggart and Marshall Sanguinet designed the structure as a companion building to the County Courthouse, which had been completed five years earlier. The elaborate high Victorian Italianate styling of the Red River County Jail features finely crafted stonework and intricate metal cornices. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1889 as Red River County's second jail, this building was designed by architects Maj. S. B. Haggart and Marshall Sanguinet as a companion to the courthouse finished five years before. Its High Victorian Italianate styling—finely crafted stonework and intricate metal cornices—gave even a place of confinement the dignity of civic architecture. Together the two buildings framed the county's seat of justice.
Why it matters
The jail reflects the Gilded Age conviction that public buildings, courthouses and jails alike, should announce a community's permanence and civic pride.
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Related people
- · S. B. Haggart
- · Marshall Sanguinet
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Red River Courthouse
Clarksville, TX
Red River County's records reach back to 1836, and this Italian Renaissance–style building, completed in 1885, is the fifth courthouse to serve the county. It stands as the civic anchor of Clarksville, one of the oldest settled areas of Northeast Texas.
The Rev. William Stevenson
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