Just off the town square of Leonard, Texas is the old concrete Leonard Calaboose. Today it’s surrounded by newish warehouses and businesses. Like most calabooses of its day, it was built just outside of town and away from local businesses and homeowners. But still close enough for law enforcement to deal with those spending the night in jail.
The Leonard Calaboose – History
The jail was built in 1919 for about $300. It’s a concrete structure built using the “poured in place” method (used molds and poured the concrete in) and then covered in plaster on both sides. There’s a single metal door and windows on each wall with vertical bars. Awnings were added to keep the weather out. .
It’s also worth mentioning, the jail did not have plumbing until 1930.
In 1997 the Leonard Calaboose was restored and the awnings you see today were added during a 1930 renovation. At that time someone cut into the concrete on July 28th, 1903.
My Visit
The calaboose is in ok condition. There really is much to maintain on it. The first time I was there, there was a lot of mud and trash in the building. During my last visit in 2021, it was cleaned up. The jail is set up with two small cells and a larger common area. As to the plumbing, all I found was an old toilet sitting outside the two smaller cells. That means someone on the outside would have to be nearby to let the prisoners out to use the toilet.
For information on the Leonard Calaboose, check out Texas Tiny Jails.
Source: https://www.tinytexasjails.com/jails/fannin-county/
About the Images
I used my Sony a6000 and my Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS lens. The images were then edited with Adobe Lightroom CC, Topaz Labs Denoise AI, Topaz Labs Sharpen AI, and Aurora HDR (no longer available but still a great product) to clean up the images. You can create the same effects from Aurora HDR with Luminiar Neo (partner discount codes: JJOHNSTPHOTOG10 – 10% off or JJOHNSTPHOTOG – $10 off) and edit your images
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