HUNTINGTON
-- When Cabell County moved the county seat to Huntington from Barboursville in
1887,
the county initially shared space in Huntington's town hall on the east
side of the 400 block of 9th Street.
That space
soon became inadequate, and in 1892 the county bought the present courthouse
site -
the block bounded by 5th and 4th avenues from 8th to 7th streets. It
wasn't until 1895
that the county felt financially ready to have plans for a
new courthouse prepared.
That was
done and a foundation for the courthouse was constructed.
No further work was
done on the building until the following year.
But the
county did build a jail building - a buff-colored brick and
sandstone
structure three stories high with a slate roof.
Erected
near the northwest corner of the block, it would hold the county's prisoners
for more than 40 years, until a new, modern jail was built in 1940.
In 1932, a
Huntington jail break made national headlines and the photo of the old jail
that's included
here was circulated to newspapers across the country by the
former International News Service.
Eighteen
prisoners at the old jail sawed their way out after overcoming two guards.
One
prisoner was immediately recaptured.
The others
remained briefly at large. The ringleader in the break was said to be a former
state Prohibition agent who had been jailed on a charge of robbing filling
stations.
When county
officials began planning the addition of a new east wing on the
courthouse in
1938, they decided the time had come to build a new jail.
The old
jail was jacked up and moved to the south, making it possible to build the new
four-story jail on the site of the original lockup. The old jail was then
demolished,
and the new east wing and jail were dedicated March 23, 1940.
Today the
county's prisoners are housed at the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville.
The jail building built in 1940 is now used as office space.