Tyler, Then and Now
Menu

1881: The jail on Erwin Street

Built between 1880 and 1881 just east of the square; the county’s jail until 1916.

Town and civic· 1881–1916

Smith County Jail (1881)
What the sources put on the map by 1885, over today’s streets.Under it: Sanborn map, May 1885, sheet 1, the blocks west of the public square (no key map that year). Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1885. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection.Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The record

  1. September 1880 to April 1881

    The Smith County Jail goes up on East Erwin Street just east of the square: the county’s third jail, in use until 1916.1

  2. 1897 and 1898

    According to the jail’s National Register nomination, a mob lynches an African American man held there in 1897, and in 1898 another mob shoots an Anglo American man to death in his cell.2

  3. May 1, 1909

    A mob breaks into the jail with sledgehammers, seizes Jim Hodge (the downtown nomination also spells it Hodges), held on a rape charge, and lynches him on the courthouse square. Later statements by his accuser led many to believe he was innocent.3

  4. March 9, 1916

    The county sells the jail to Jefferson Y. Lewis for $1,800, and he makes it the Lewis Hotel.1

  5. 1986 and 1996

    Historic Tyler, Inc., buys the building in 1986; it is listed on the National Register on August 22, 1996.2

Notes

  1. National Register nomination, Smith County Jail (1881) (atlas.thc.texas.gov); THC Atlas, National Register listing: Smith County Jail, 1881 (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  2. National Register nomination, Smith County Jail (1881) (atlas.thc.texas.gov); THC Atlas, National Register listing: Smith County Jail, 1881 (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  3. National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, Historic and Architectural Resources of Tyler, Texas (2001) (atlas.thc.texas.gov); National Register nomination, Smith County Jail (1881) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). The downtown nomination spells the name 'Jim Hodges' in one citation and 'Jim Hodge' in another. Research notes

About this plate

  • Smith County Jail (1881): a filled pin marks the place the sources tie the event to. 32.35058° N, 95.29803° W, from OpenStreetMap node/5626036431.
  • Under the plate, the Sanborn map, May 1885 (sheet 1, the blocks west of the public square (no key map that year)). It is placed by 5 street crossings that still exist; checked by leaving each out in turn, it is off by about 2 m downtown. How the old maps are placed.
  • The faint linework is today’s map, from OpenStreetMap. How the map is made.