Tioga Calaboose – The Old Tioga City Jail

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own..

Most small towns had a jail and it was generally a one or two cell building that ranged in size from around 70 square feet to several hundred square feet. In Texas many of these small jails were called Calabooses and you can see one of these examples in Tioga, Texas. The Tioga Calaboose in Tioga, Texas and it sits off FM-121 and is just east of US-377.

What is a Calaboose

The term is a late 18th century term from Louisiana French calabouse, from Spanish calabozo ‘dungeon’. – English Oxford Living Dictionaries.  This term commonly any size or jail. It can be a little as a metal box/cage to hold prisoners to large prison systems. But it wasn’t until about a 100 years ago or so that small towns (some counties also referred to their county jail as a calaboose) in the south and south west started to use the calaboose to refer to small one or two prison cell building as a calaboose.

From my research and travels I’ve found calabooses to be made with limited funds. So cities put these building together with readily available building supplies. This could be from bricks, wood, concrete blocks, native stone, and concrete. Most of the calabooses I’ve seen in person or online during my research is made from brick or concrete (depends on the age) with a tin roof with limited ventilation. The Doors where metal bars bars on the doors along. The cells were generally of the same material.

I learned that these buildings were mostly used for temporary holding of prisoners waiting for transport to county lock up and court appearances. They may have been used as the drunk holding tank. Drunks would be locked up until morning and then let go.

Tioga Calaboose – The Old Tioga City  Jail

The Tioga Calaboose was built around 1900 (according to the sign) but research by William E. Moore says the building was mostly built around 1906 when the town was incorporated. There isn’t an official record when it was built. There’s a couple of old maps that show the jail as being listed as a calaboose in the 1914 and 1922 map.

Keep in mind, just because the town was incorporated in 1906 doesn’t mean the town wasn’t their before 1906. The incorporation only means it officially became a town in 1906. If the community was large enough to be incorporated there’s a good chance the jail could have been built in 1900. Plus this may not be the first jail in town. Many small towns do not have records that far back.

The city used the jail up until the 1970s. But during the last years of operation, it was mostly used as a drunk tank. From Mr. Moore’s article, he mentioned that the drunks were brought in at night and made to sleep it. Once sober, they were allowed to leave.

This calaboose is has been preserved for the most part. Someone has invested in putting a small fence around the place and sealed up the cracks and at one time the tin roof was replaced.

This is a tiny calaboose (but not the smallest I’ve seen. I couldn’t see inside and I plan to bring a light and shine it in there on my next visit. According to Mr. Moore, this building is 12 feet by 19 feet and is 228 square feet.

For more information about the Tioga Calaboose in Tioga, Texas or wanting to learn more about Texas Calabooses, check out Texas Tiny Jails. Mr, Moore also has a book on the subject.

Sources:

• Texas Tiny Jails
• English Oxford Living Dictionaries
• General research over the years and experience in visiting different locations.

About the Images

The Tioga Calaboose in Tioga, Texas was shot by hand on a gloomy rainy day using my Sony a6000 and the Sony 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS Power Zoom Lens. I used Topaz Labs A.I. Clear and DXO NIK Collection to clean up the image, remove noise, and recover the lost details.