see Blanco County Jail
see Blanco County Courthouse
see Blanco County Courthouse – retired
Well, this is an interesting one. I had read somewhere that there was a retired county jail in Blanco – behind a main square row of businesses – on the west side of the square. We’re in the area fairly often and have driven around the block – but couldn’t see it. On our last visit – we went to the Uptown Blanco Restaurant – located in that block, and I asked about the old jail. The manager was very informative and provided us with some history of the jail – and led us to the actual jail – which is right behind the restaurant. Actually, this block of buildings seemed to have been built around the old jail.
As I said, she provided information – but I’m not sure what happened to it. There was a famous ‘massacre’ and the culprit was held in the jail – until he was spirited out by a lynch mob and hung on an old tree a little out of town.
This was the county jail until the county seat was moved to Johnson City. Something I didn’t realize, jails – at least back then, used pre-fabricated metal cells – and the buildings housing the jail were built around the cells. Since the county didn’t want to spring for new cells – the ones from this jail were torn out and installed in the ‘new’ jail in Johnson city. Since that ‘new’ jail is still in use today – it is very possible the original cells are still in use as well.