{"nrhp_refnum":"04000098","name":"Live Oak County Jail","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Public square in Oakville","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakville","county":"Live Oak County","state":"TX","lat":28.448935595000023,"lon":-98.10135274099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-02-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Law","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small, two-story Italianate-style sandstone jail on the public square in Oakville, Live Oak County, Texas, built 1886-1887 from plans supplied by the Diebold Lock and Safe Company of Canton, Ohio.","why_significant":"The jail is the only structure left on the square of Oakville, once the Live Oak County seat, and symbolizes the town's hopes for prosperity and the arrival of law on the Texas frontier. It is also a rare surviving example of a Diebold \"kit\" jail (style S-47), one of only two in Texas. It was listed under Criteria A and C at the local level.","narrative":"Built in 1886-1887, the Live Oak County Jail is a two-story sandstone building on the public square of Oakville, a ghost town about eighty miles southeast of San Antonio. Its walls are rough-hewn sandstone blocks hauled by ox-cart from a nearby quarry, topped by a heavy cornice and a low metal hipped roof. The plans came from the Diebold Lock and Safe Company of Ohio and included strap-metal cells on the second floor, with sheriff's quarters below. It served as the county's third and most sophisticated jail until 1919, when voters moved the county seat to George West and Oakville declined. The courthouse was demolished in 1938, leaving the jail as the only remaining structure on the square. It was later used as a residence and is now vacant. The building is significant for its link to the town's rise and fall, to the arrival of law on the Texas frontier, and as one of only two Texas jails using Diebold's S-47 plan.","period_of_significance":"1886-1919","architect_builder":"Diebold Lock and Safe Company, Canton, Ohio","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant/not in use. It was later used as a residence and has alterations including a drop ceiling and 1930s window replacements.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.625272-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/9728/40972851/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/04000098.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000098/32920a9abf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000098/32920a9abf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Live_oak_county_jail_2009.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Live_oak_county_jail_2009.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972851","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Oak_County_Jail","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6655336"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/live-oak-county/live-oak-county-jail-04000098/"}