{"nrhp_refnum":"83004500","name":"Hays County Jail","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"170 Fredericksburg St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Marcos","county":"Hays County","state":"TX","lat":29.880502148000062,"lon":-97.94258235799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-08-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Law","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The old Hays County Jail is a two-story, L-shaped limestone building with a one-story rear cell block at 170 Fredericksburg Street in San Marcos, Texas, built in 1884 on its original site.","why_significant":"The nomination cites it as a typical 19th-century Texas jail with Italianate character, shown by its low-pitched roof and bracketed eaves. It served county law enforcement for more than half a century, until 1937, and was the site of Hays County's only official hanging in 1915.","narrative":"Built in 1884 at 170 Fredericksburg Street in San Marcos, the old Hays County Jail combines a two-story, L-shaped jailkeeper's residence with a one-story cell block at the rear. Walls are cut limestone, and the interior walls are 15 inches thick. A low-pitched roof and bracketed eaves give the building an Italianate character, a style more often used on houses, which softens an otherwise forbidding structure. County commissioners signed the construction contract on February 14, 1884, with Edward Northcraft as architect and B. F. Donalson as builder. They had until August 12 and a budget of $11,500. The jail replaced one built in 1873 on the same lot. It held prisoners until 1937, when frequent breakouts and repairs led to a new facility. In 1915 it was the setting for the only official hanging in Hays County. Though in poor condition and unoccupied, the building is only slightly altered and considered a good candidate for rehabilitation.","period_of_significance":"1800-99","architect_builder":"Edward Northcraft, architect; B. F. Donalson, builder","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Unoccupied and vacant, in poor condition and slightly altered, but described as having good potential for rehabilitation.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.0928-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/63/9695/40969563/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/83004500.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004500/885081a2c5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004500/885081a2c5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_hays_jail_2013.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:Old_hays_jail_2013.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969563","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110000458"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/hays-county/hays-county-jail-83004500/"}