Callaway County Jails and Courthouses
Of the various accounts of the formation of Callaway County, the priority when organizing the County Seat was planning the location, design, and construction of the courthouse and jail. The original County Seat in 1820 was at the town of Elizabeth, located approximately one-half mile northwest of Ham’s Prairie. A log jailhouse was immediately constructed there, but a courthouse was never constructed. Instead, court matters were carried out at Henry Brite’s tavern. The cost of the jail, $785 (about $20,000 in today’s dollars), was covered by selling lots in the new town.
The more central location of Fulton was selected to be the County Seat in 1825. Once the location of the courthouse and jail were decided, the jail in Elizabeth was to be moved to Fulton, but it was destroyed by fire before it could be relocated. The two-story stone jailhouse pictured here was built in the mid-1860s and later moved to a location on the east side of Market Street between 3rd and 4th Streets (near, or possibly overlapping, the southwest corner of our current KCHS Research Center.)
A Sheriff’s residence was also constructed on Market Street in front of the jail. Prisoners occasionally escaped by removing one of the large stone blocks. The roof and interior were remodeled in 1881, adding steel cladding to the roof, interior walls, and second floor, plus updated plumbing and storm drains. The standard of the time provided for “security, segregation, sanitation, and safety.” The cost of $3,460 would be approximately $100,000 today.
When the current courthouse was opened in 1940, the third floor served as the county jail. The old jailhouse was dismantled, and the stones were sold to Tom Van Sant, who used them to build a house near Hatton. Unfortunately, the house was later gutted by fire.
Callaway’s current county jail on Route O replaced the jail space in the courthouse in the 1990s. It was designed to accommodate 100 prisoners and is frequently at 85-90 detainees. The new 2022 renovation will increase capacity to 150 and allow for better separation of inmates in case of illness. It will also include much-needed technology upgrades. In addition, the jail renovation and the new Justice Center built at Market & 2nd Streets increases Callaway’s court capacity and have better, smarter jail designs and operations.
photo from the mid-to-late-1930s was taken from the top of the old courthouse, showing the old jailhouse to the left, the Sheriff’s residence center, and the old City Hall to the right. The jail yard was the setting for one of the last public hangings in Missouri.
