Port O’Connor

(Photo courtesy of Jess Reed)

Jess Reed provided the picture of the Port O’Connor calaboose.  It is owned by the city and is located their property near the Precinct 5 barn.  Mrs. Reed has done some research and learned that the calaboose was probably built the same time that Port O’Connor was recognized as a town in 1909.  Port O’Connor is still unincorporated.  He wrote that the Port O’Connor Constable in the 1950s was Grady Malone (aka Jack Malone).  His grandson, Henry Anderson, told Mr. Reed that he remembers riding around with Mr. Malone and listening to his stories.  He has Malone’s badge and blackjack that he carried but no historic photos.  The next Constable was Claude William Goode and he served in the 1960s.   According to local residents, Deputy Leonard Moss Fisher once locked up 22 men in the jail at the same time.  Those who lived nearby reported that there was a lot of noise in the calaboose at dusk when the mosquitoes arrived in swarms.  Another informant said that there was a homeless family who lived in a tent adjacent to the jail during the late 1920s and sometime during the early 1930s.

This calaboose measured 10 feet wide by 12 feet on each side (120 square feet).  It is 8 feet 6 inches tall.  The door is 3 feet  wide by 6 feet 6 inches tall.  There is only one window and there was no plumbing.  It is 31 inches wide and 28 inches high.  The floor is concrete.  This calaboose conforms to Floor Plan 1a (see Floor Plans). This jail has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41CL98.

Darryl Pearson visited with Judge Nancy Pomykal (Precinct 5), a long time resident of the town.  She said that it has been in the same location since 1909.  The original door is no longer present.  She also said when Hurricane Carla destroyed much of the town in 1961, the calaboose survived.  Mr. Pearson copied a picture of the town after the storm and he marked its  location and this photo appears below.

Detail of Window

(Photo courtesy of Darryl Pearson)

 Map of Port O’Conner in 1961

(Courtesy of Judge Pomykal)

Location of Calaboose in 2015

(Photo courtesy of Darryl Pearson)

Seadrift

The sign placed at the site of the calaboose makes the claim that it was the first and only jail built in Seadrift and that it was constructed circa 1914.  It is owned by the city and is located at the end of Houston Avenue near the entrance to the city park.  It is 11 feet across the front and 14 feet 8 inches on the sides (162.8 square feet).  The original door is missing and the opening for it is ____ feet wide by 6.5 inches tall.  The two windows are secured with six vertically placed round bars in front of a wire mesh.  They measure 31 inches wide and 28 inches tall.  The only cell in this calaboose was the one room interior and it conforms to Floor Plan 1a (see Floor Plans).  Two cells made of wood and chicken wire were added recently, possibly for the city’s centennial celebration in 2012.  The murals on the exterior, probably added for that same event, are faded but visible.  The photos are courtesy of Darryl Pearson. This jail has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41CL99.

Darryl Pearson posing at the Seadrift calaboose

View of the two Windows

Closeup of one of the windows

Modern cells