One of the most monumental county jails built in Texas in the nineteenth century, the former Gonzales County Jail is the largest extant from that century. Houston-based Heiner was a prolific architect, building nineteen jails and seventeen courthouses (
AS2, WD1). Finished in a handsome tawny brick, the three-story structure features segmental-arched windows on the ground floor that are repeated on the top floor of the projecting entrance tower. Within, the cells contain graffiti left by inmates.