This year seems to be a lost year when it comes to adding significantly to the courthouses pictured on this website.  And I am more sorry about that than anyone.  I have some faint hopes that this may change over the coming months into the next year.  But until then, I will have to make due with what I have.

What I have, in this case, is two sets of photos taken of old jails in Anderson County (Palestine).  The Anderson County Courthouse was one of the first we’d captured and it remains one of my favorites for many reasons.  And since we visit Palestine a few times a year, opportunities are plentiful in this part of East Texas.

The first jail is one that is really not a county jail.  What it was was a building on the County’s Poor Farm.  Often, county jail inmates were sent to work on the poor farm, and this building was used to hold the inmates while there.  click here to see this old time jail.

The Second jail I’ve posted is actually the 3rd jail of Anderson County.  There was the original jail – which was built to include and ‘underground dungeon’.  And then there was the 1890’s beauty which stood on the same spot as the art deco jail that I’ve photographed here.  The ‘new’ jail is interesting as an art deco style jailhouse, but also for the fact that it has recently been bought by someone interested in ‘fixing’ it up.  Click here to see some great photos of this old courthouse and meet the guy that bought it.

Be sure to take a little time to visit these interesting jail relics in Anderson County.