Coke County Jail

The jail on Chadbourne Street has outlived its jailers. The county closed it in the mid-1960s, and the county historical commission reopened it in 1975. It now houses the Coke County Museum, and its relics have included a post office window from the vanished community of Edith. A rope hangs over the sealed trap door of the second-floor gallows, which was never used. The building stands a block from the courthouse square, and the National Register of Historic Places listed it in 2004.

What the plaque says

Coke County Jail Successor to county's first one-room jail of rough lumber built about 1891, this building was erected 1907 by Southern Structural Steel Company, San Antonio. Officials who let the contract were P.D. Coulson, county judge; C.M. Barger, S.W. Gaston, T.J. Goss, M.C. Jones, Commissioners. At least seven early sheriffs lived downstairs, acting as jailkeepers. The prisoners averaged about four a month, jailed only for short terms for minor law violations. Coke County never has had a felon assessed the death penalty. The gallows on second floor were never used. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Chadbourne — 17 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.

More markers nearby

• Richard Coke — steps away
• Fence-Cutting War — steps away
• Robert Lee Cemetery — 0.8 mi
• Henry Davis Pearce — 0.9 mi