Bellville

This tiny structure stands next to the old two-story county jail that is very similar to the one in Cameron (Milam County).  It has been modified and is currently used as storage.  The date of construction is not known, but it was sometime after 1906 based on the available Sanborn maps.  It has doors at each end, and that floor plan also exists in some known calabooses. There is a metal door on the wall that opens into the interior.  This could have been used as a way to pass food and other objects to prisoners without opening the main door.   The two doors suggest that there were two cells.  So far, nobody has been able to identify its original function with any degree of certainty. Small buildings with two rooms next to courthouses were sometimes built as restrooms but the function of the tiny metal door on the front of a restroom seems out of place.