Robertson County

Calvert

The Sanborn map dated 1885 (Sheet 1) shows a one-story brick jail in Calvert in the southern half of City Block 41 next to an alley that divides the block. City Hall was in a wooden building in the southwest corner of the block at 515 Burnett.   It was in the same location in 1891 (Sheet 2) but this map describes it as a calaboose.  On that map, city lots had been platted and the calaboose was in lot 7.  In 1901 (Sheet 3), the building that housed City Hall was gone and there was a small brick one-story building next to the calaboose in Lot 8 but it is not described according to function.  In 1911 (sheet 3) the word “calaboose” is written across two brick structures in lots 7 and 8 indicating that perhaps both were used as a lockup.  The block that contained the calaboose was now the 400 block of Burnett.  I drove to Calvert on November 10, 2013 and discovered that not one of these structures is still there.

 

 Calvert 1885 (border)

Calvert 1885

Calvert 1891 (Border)

Calvert 1891

Calvert 1911 (border)

Calvert 1911

Hearne

The Sanborn fire insurance map dated July 1885 (Sheet 1) depicts two one-story wood calabooses (side by side) in Hearne, Texas.  They were located at 705 Market Street just outside of city block 403 between the street and the railroad.  They were still there in May of 1891 (Sheet 1).  In 1896 (Sheet 1) there was a small one story wood calaboose in the street at the corner of Cedar and 4th.  This sheet does not cover the area where the two previous calabooses were depicted in 1885 and 1891. It was still in the same location in 1901 (Sheet 1), 1906 (Sheet 3), and 1911 (Sheet 3).   No maps post-1911 were available.  These calabooses are no longer present.  A larger one-story brick jail (date of construction not known) is still standing and the police department uses it for storage (see Other Jails).

 

Hearne 1885 (border)

Hearne 1885

Robertson-Hearne-1896

Hearne 1896

Mumford

A resident of Mumford told me that there used to be a concrete calaboose at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 50 and Farm-to-Market Road 1687.  His first memory of that building was in the early 1950s when he was about six years old.  He said that was a small one-room concrete structure with a couple of windows (with bars) and a metal door that also had bars.  According to him, it has been gone for a long time.  Michael Kraft accompanied me to the very tiny town that has an impressive abandoned General Merchandise store and nothing else except the remains of a few residences and several cotton gins.  We saw no evidence of a calaboose.

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