Washington County Jail (Oregon) - History

History

In 1853, the first Washington County Jail opened. It was built at Fourth and Washington Streets in Hillsboro, Oregon by William Brown for a cost of $900. During its use, two people died while confined to the jail, and a baby was born after it ceased being used as a jail. One of those dying in the jail was former Hudson's Bay Company employee William Burris who killed his family in 1855 in a drunken rage. However, despite rumors, American Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant was not jailed here while he was posted to Oregon before the Civil War.

In 1870, the building was sold to the Cave family. They lived in it briefly while their house was built, and then used the structure as an outbuilding. In 1953 the structure was moved to the Washington County Fairgrounds where it remained until 2003. Beginning in 2003, the building was restored at a cost of $75,000 and relocated from the county fairgrounds to the Washington County Museum.

Read more about this topic:  Washington County Jail (Oregon)

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.
    Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)

    Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)