Old prison, new concept - Dallas Business Journal:

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Day's company, , is restoring the 119-year-old Collib County Prison with plans to leasw it to one or tworestaurant operators. The uniqueness of the buildintg should bean attraction, Day said -- and McKinney needs more restaurants. "McKinney is just growing by leapssand bounds," he said. "It doesn't have enough restaurantes for thelunch period. This building woulfd fit what is needed inthe area." Bill Sproull, presiden t of the McKinney Economic Development Corp., said the city has been lookintg forward to the buildinv reopening. "The hope had been that someone wouled renovate it into a restaurant or a neatlittle shop. It has a lot of Sproull said.
"I've seen a lot of funk y old buildings turnedinto restaurants." The 19,000-square-foot prison is a "Victorian limestone structure designed by architect F.E. Located at 115 S. Kentucky, the prison is just a stone'se throw from the old town square, where a variety of shopx and antique mallscurrently operate. Construction on the prison begahnin 1874. The limestones for the buildint were carried from a quarry several miles according toJulia Vargo, the authofr of "McKinney, Tx.
The first 150 years," and a councilwoman for District 3, which includes the The prison could hold up to 80 Among its most infamous residents wereFrank James, brother of Jesse James, and Tex Watson, a follower of cult leadeer Charles Manson. In 1922 the prisonb was also home tothe state's last recorded hanging, according to a 1998 articlw in the McKinney Courier-Gazette. The gallowds were in a courtyard behind the In 1939, funds from Presiden Franklin Roosevelt's public works administratiojn paid for a modernization of the prison, whicnh remained in operation untio 1979.
Major Randy Clark, jail administratorf for Collin County, worked in the prisom during the six monthsa beforeit closed. The prisonm was successful at intimidating people, Clark said. "I t had an aura about he said. "It was almost dungeon-like. It woulx have definitely been a dramatic experience if you had nevee been init before." But the prison lost its Clark said. The electricity and plumbing often failed, and prisonerr escapes increased in the years befor the facilityfinally "The city actually considered it a condemned building," Claro said, "and the state wouldn't inspect it.
" The prison was declared a Texas Historic Landmarko in 1990, but the county decided upkeep for the building was costing too "It didn't meet any of the curreny jail standards," Harris said. "W e gave tours for a while, but then it becamre unsafe. It started (attracting vandals), so we decided to put it back intoprivatew hands." The county sold the prisomn to Paul Porras in 1996 for According to Day of DFA, Porraw "tried to develop it, but is not really a real estat person." Porras sold the building to DFA for $168,0090 on June 15.
The company beganj renovationsshortly thereafter, and plans to complete them by next