In 1911 the commissioners court of Scurry County presented plans for a new jail after the county's two previous jail houses, built in 1884 and 1886, had proven insufficient for its needs. Land at this site was purchased with bond money, and the brick building was completed in 1912 using local labor. The first floor housed the jailer and his family, while prisoner cells and a hospital occupied the second and third stories. A trapdoor was included for use as a hanging gallows. The jail served the citizens of Scurry County for over sixty years.