Albany

 According to Diana Nail at the Albany, Texas Chamber of Commerce in Shackelford County, there was a small one-story wooden calaboose near the courthouse square. This structure preceded a two-story stone county jail that was constructed in 1878 and is now The Old Jail Art Center. At the time, the first floor was for law enforcement and the second floor had four metal cells for the prisoners.  There are no Sanborn maps for Albany that date to this period. The earliest was drafted in 1885 and does not cover the area where the 1878 jail was located. The next jail in town was the two-story Shackelford County jail that was built in the 1930s. It is still standing and houses the Justice of the Peace. There are no Sanborn maps that date to the 1930s or later. The current jail was constructed in 2012 and is referred to as the law enforcement center. Joan Upton Hall (2007:13-16) discusses the 1878 jail and current museum  in detail in her book entitled “Just Visiting’: Old Texas Jails.”