San Jacinto County Jail
Coldspring, San Jacinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Noted for rare but never used hangman's trap. Second jail for San Jacinto County which was organized 1871, this structure was built in 1887 by L. T. Noyes of Houston. Later, the Southern Structural Steel Company of San Antonio installed cells and the unusual execution device. That firm also built annex in 1911. In 1915 San Jacinto County's frame courthouse burned. When a new brick courthouse was built a quarter-mile to the southwest, axis of the town shifted from area of the jail, which still serves its official role. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1887 as San Jacinto County's second jail, this structure is best known for a rare hangman's trap that was installed but never used — a grim feature added by a San Antonio steel firm along with its cells and a 1911 annex. When the county's frame courthouse burned in 1915 and a new brick one rose a quarter-mile away, the town's center of gravity shifted, yet the old jail kept serving its official purpose. It stands as a durable relic of nineteenth-century frontier justice.
Why it matters
The jail's unused gallows and long service capture both the harsh instruments and the everyday machinery of law enforcement in a small Texas county.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · L.T. Noyes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old San Jacinto County Jail
Coldspring, TX
Approved by the county commissioners in 1886 and finished the next year, this jail combined second-floor cells with ground-floor living quarters for the jailer and his family—a common arrangement in small Texas counties of the era. Its decorative brickwork and arched windows reflect the Victorian tastes of the 1880s. It served San Jacinto County until 1980 and is the last surviving building from Coldspring's original townsite.
General James Davis
Coldspring, TX
General James Davis lived a life braided through America's early wars and Texas's founding. A U.S. Army officer at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, he came to Texas in 1834 and served the young Republic on Sam Houston's staff in 1836, later as adjutant-general and a member of its Congress and 1845 constitutional convention. In 1848 he donated the land for the church that became First Baptist of Coldspring.
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Coldspring, TX
Laurel Hill Cemetery took its name from the laurel trees ringing the baptismal pool of the local Baptist church, and its land was donated in 1848 by General James B. Davis, adjutant-general of the Republic of Texas army. Burials began in the 1840s; the oldest surviving stone marks two-year-old Frances California Snow, who died in 1854. Davis himself was buried here in 1859, and later neighbors donated additional strips of land as the grounds were fenced.
Mount Moriah Lodge No. 37, A. F. & A. M.
Coldspring, TX
Chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas in January 1848, Mount Moriah Lodge No. 37 first gathered in the Mount Pleasant settlement, meeting in a Fireman's Hill schoolhouse that was hauled to Coldspring in 1853. Its rolls carried many Republic of Texas pioneers and leading officials of Polk and San Jacinto counties. After an 1915 fire forced Coldspring to relocate, the lodge followed to the new townsite and built a fresh hall.