Website:https://www.facebook.com/YoungTxCHC (Young County Historical Commission Facebook Page)
Description:The 1921 Young County Jail served as the county jail from 1921-1977, and as a women's shelter from 1986-2020. It most famously served as the headquarters for the manhunt for the Santa Claus Bank Robbers after a botched robbery in Cisco TX in 1927. It recently applied for and received a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark from the Texas Historic Commission. The jail is a 3-story building with the first floor serving as a living quarter for the Sheriff, and cells on the second and third floor. It has indoor gallows that is intact but never used. Most of the original cells are present as they were too costly to remove. Currently the building is unoccupied, only used by the Young County Historical Commission for meetings and storage. It is virtually a blank canvas for a prohibition era through the 70s jail. The 1921 Jail also sits next to the 1936 Post Office that was preserved and is currently an art museum, and the 1931 County Court House that still serves in that capacity. The interior of the square still has red brick paving and nearly all buildings in view in the background have facades from the 1880s to 1950s to the 1919 National Theater (still in use) and the old City Hall/Jail/Fire Station that was used until the 1950 and now serves as a pizza shop. One note about the cells. When the Graham Crisis Center began remodeling in 1986 as a Women's Shelter, they did start cutting some of the bars with torches and removed sections before giving up. I think those sections could easily be patched using metal or even PVC or wooden dowel by a competent set designer. The doors on the main cells currently don't function but all of the original mechanisms are there. We are currently working to make them functional again. In the holding cell area both cells are in much better shape, only missing the doors which could easily be recreated. Also, the bars were removed from the windows and would need to be recreated or mocked up.
Permit: 3-5
