City Directories and History: 1909 – #125 West Church Street,
The sketch shows the old Anderson County jail as it was pictured in a booklet published in 1909 by the Chamber of Commerce and the City Council. The building was described as “looking like a nice residence, presenting a good appearance to the street.” In fact the sheriff and his family did occupy the front part and were responsible for seeing that the prisoners were fed.
After 1956 when this old brick building was abandoned and more modern prison facilities built on the edge of the county sear, there was some controversy as to the best use of the property and its actual ownership for a search of records failed to show that Anderson County had ever purchased the property. It is known that prior to the War Between the States race horses were stabled on the lot where the old jailhouse was built. The original plat of Anderson, made in 1828. shows that plot, but does not designate the ownership.
The first jail on the property at the corner of Church and Jail Streets (the later now a part of Murray Avenue) was a two-story brick building erected about 1875. When it was razed in the spring of 1898, J.S. Fowler bought the brick and other material that had gone into it and used them to build a livery stable. This second building, erected immediately after the completion of the new courthouse in 1898, was financed with surplus funds. In 1897 Supervisor Snelgrove was allotted $35,000 by the legislative delegation with which to build a courthouse. To save money, the plans were bought secondhand from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which town also sent along the jail plans for good measure. The courthouse cost $26,000 which left $9,000 to build a new jail using the free plans. Later both sets of plans were resold to Washington, Georgia. In 1930 about $30,000 was spent to renovate the jail by installing new steel work, the only steel in the 1898 building having been in the basement in which was known as the “dungeon,” a black, dismal place used for unruly prisoners.
The year 1898 was marked by quite a few changes in downtown Anderson” a new courthouse, a new jail, and also a new City Hall on the corner of Market and South Main Streets, all buildings in the latest style and sporting a variety of towers. (Source: Anderson County Sketches, by the Anderson County Tricentennial Commission.
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