Marathon
This very interesting rock jail is located in the tiny West Texas town of Marathon at the intersection of Southwest 2nd Street and an unnamed street that runs north to Southwest 1st Street.
It may be moved to the jail category as it is too large for a calaboose.
It is owned by the city. The town was founded in 1882 by Albion E. Shepard, a former sea captain who had worked as a surveyor for the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway. He named the town Marathon because the area reminded him of the plains of Greece. At the time, the town was in Presidio County. When the county was divided into Brewster, Buchel, and Foley counties, Marathon became the county seat of Buchel County in 1887. These counties were never organized and they became part of the present day Brewster County, the largest in Texas. Prior to the construction of this jail, drunks and other petty offenders were chained to a windmill on North First Street. Serious criminals were taken to Alpine. A one-room adobe house behind French’s store was also used as a jail but there were too many escapes.
The size of this jail is 18.5′ by 35′ (647.5 square feet) and that makes it one of the larger buildings posted on this website. The two windows on the front and the one on the west side measure 33″ by 79″ and are some of the largest windows that I have reported. The front door is 33″ by 7′. There was a separate entrance on the west side but it is covered with wood that is probably n to original. The front door opens to a common room that was probably for law enforcement. One unnamed source claims that it was an open room at first but used cells from the old Alpine county jail were brought to Marathon and installed inside. It is not possible to tell from the photos but it appears that the windows do not line up with the cells. Also, it does not seem likely that cells were installed given the size of the two doors as compared to the metal cells. Theres a door on the west side that has been boarded up and it appears that it would have led directly to the cells. I am grateful to Kaylan Thomas for taking these photos and measurements. The older black and white image was provided by Darryl Pearson but it origin is not known at this time. This jail has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41BS2689.
