Houston

Overview

The county seat that moved away

Houston sits in the hills of Winston County, whose Unionist leaders talked of leaving the Confederacy and which is still called the Free State of Winston. When the legislature created the county in 1850 as Hancock County, its first seat was a place called Houston, east of Brushy Creek. In 1858 the county took the name Winston and moved its seat about three miles southwest, to the present site, which kept the name. A two-story log courthouse went up, with a jail, and the town filled with doctors, lawyers, blacksmiths, stores and a county newspaper.

It was a hard place to keep order. The first jail was destroyed by pro-Union men during the war, a probate judge was killed by raiders in 1864, and another was stabbed at the courthouse in 1869. In 1877 the new Cullman County took the eastern third of Winston, and Houston was no longer near the middle. The seat moved to Double Springs in 1883 or 1884; sources differ. The 1880 census, the only one to count Houston, found 103 people.

With the courts gone, the town dwindled to a crossroads. The courthouse is long gone, and the log jail of about 1868 is the only public building left from the county-seat years. The state marker beside it calls the place "the old ghost town of Houston," and Wikipedia lists it among Alabama's ghost towns. People still live here. Ghost Town USA gave 120 people for 1990, and the current USGS map shows a post office at the crossroads.

Video

A Sunday stop at the log jail

A visitor drives into Houston past two churches, a building supply store, a restaurant and the post office, then walks the jail grounds. He reads the state marker and the plaques under busts of Willis Farris, John Anthony Winston and Richard Elliott Payne, then steps through the open door into the two plank-lined rooms, their walls studded with nail heads, and finds the hole in the back wall. A note inside says more artifacts are kept at the post office, which was closed that Sunday. The narration calls it the Houston County jail; it was Winston County's. Part of the video is filmed from the driver's seat while driving.

Play “Houston, Alabama - The State's Oldest Surviving Log Jail” from YouTube

Timeline

Seat of the Free State, then a crossroads

1. Feb 12, 1850The legislature creates Hancock County. Its first seat is Houston, east of Brushy Creek and about three miles northeast of today's Houston.
2. 1853A post office opens, by Ghost Town USA's count.
3. Jan 22, 1858Hancock County is renamed Winston, for Gov. John Anthony Winston. The county seat moves to the present site and keeps the name Houston.
4. 1858–1865A first jail is built. Pro-Union men in the county destroy it during the Civil War. A reader's note printed in Alabama Living says they burned it twice.
5. Jan 19, 1864Raiders kill Probate Judge Tom Pink Curtis and take the county's money and salt, by a local history.
6. Dec 11, 1865An act lets the county levy a tax to rebuild its jail.
7. 1868A courthouse is built, and the log jail follows about then. A local history says the courthouse burned on February 23, 1868, and had to be rebuilt.
8. Feb 25, 1869Probate Judge Payton Baughn is stabbed to death at the courthouse, by the same local history.
9. 1877Cullman County takes the eastern third of Winston County, leaving Houston off center.
10. 1880The only census to list Houston counts 103 people.
11. 1883–1884The county seat moves to Double Springs. The Encyclopedia of Alabama gives 1883, and the reader's note in Alabama Living gives July 23, 1883; the state marker and the National Register form give 1884.
12. About 1933The empty jail becomes a home for the poor. It stays a private residence into the 1960s.
13. 1975Marshall Alford gives the jail to the people of Winston County, and it is listed on the National Register on June 5. The form calls it unoccupied and deteriorated.
14. 1990Ghost Town USA gives Houston 120 people.
15. 2006–2008The Houston Historical Society starts restoring the jail in March 2006. The reader's note in Alabama Living dates the finished restoration to 2008.
16. Aug 2021A visitor photographs the restored jail, its state marker and the memorials beside it.
17. Oct 2023A video posted this month shows the jail open to step into, three busts on stone pillars beside it, and two churches, a building supply store, a restaurant and the post office at the crossroads.

What's left

The log jail

The jail is a square of hand-hewn oak and pine logs, 20 feet on a side, on a fieldstone foundation. An interlocking log wall splits it into two cells. Inside, the log walls were covered with thick boards nailed about every inch from floor to ceiling, so prisoners couldn't saw their way out. The state marker says the boards were cut at the water-powered Partridge Mill on the Sipsey River and that a local blacksmith made the nails. The small front window still had its iron bars in 1975. Each cell had a hole five inches across, cut at a slant through the back wall, as its toilet.

The National Register form calls it the only known surviving log jail in Alabama. The newer state marker says north Alabama. After the county seat left, the jail was sold. Around 1933 it became a home for the poor, and the galvanized roof probably dates from then. When it was listed in 1975 it was empty, half covered in board-and-batten siding and in deteriorated condition. The Houston Historical Society began restoring it in 2006, and Wikipedia says the roof has been put back to wood shakes.

Photos taken in August 2021 for the Historical Marker Database show the restored jail from all four sides and the Alabama Historical Commission marker. The database lists memorials a few steps away to the first sheriff, Willis Farris, to Governor John Anthony Winston and to Richard Elliott Payne, and a model 1841 mountain howitzer. In the video posted in October 2023 the three memorials are busts on stone pillars with plaques, and the jail door is open. Inside are the two plank-lined rooms, the nail-studded walls and a note saying more artifacts are kept at the post office.

• Houston Jail, about 1868 (National Register, 1975)
• Alabama Historical Commission marker, "The Jail at Houston / Houston-County Seat of Winston"
• Busts of Willis Farris, John Anthony Winston and Richard Elliott Payne
• M1841 mountain howitzer
• Memorial Church and cemeteries (USGS maps)

Site map

Where the town stood

The 1969 and 2000 USGS sheets put Houston at 761 feet on the road that is now County Road 63, with Memorial Church and a small pond beside it and cemeteries to the north and south. Today's USGS map adds a post office at the crossroads. The small-scale 1956 Gadsden sheet shows Houston south of US 278, between Double Springs and Addison, with arms of Lewis Smith Lake around it. Old Houston, the first county seat, lay about three miles to the northeast across Brushy Creek, and we found no description of what is left there.

One source disagrees about the name. The Encyclopedia of Alabama's county article says Houston is "now known as Lynn." By Wikipedia's coordinates, Lynn is a separate town about 18 miles to the west-southwest, and the USGS and the post office still use the name Houston here.

Historic maps

Houston on USGS maps, 1956–2000

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19561:250,00019691:24,00019801:100,00020001:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Double Springs, the town that took the county seat from Houston, is 8.5 miles away by road. US 278 runs east from it to County Road 63, which drops south to the jail. From Birmingham, take I-65 north and come west on US 278.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of Houston?

We haven’t added more photographs of Houston yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Houston?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Houston

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Alabama index.

• Batts Nest19.6 mi W · Winston
• Lacon24.3 mi NE · Morgan
• White City27.9 mi E · Cullman
• Pearces Mill33.1 mi W · Marion
• Bluff City39.0 mi NE · Morgan
• Pikeville40.3 mi W · Marion
• Bainbridge46.5 mi N · Lauderdale
• Barnesville46.9 mi W · Marion

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Houston, Alabama", retrieved October 2026: the county seat from 1858 to 1884, the 1880 census of 103, ZIP 35572, elevation, GNIS coordinates; and "Houston Jail": the fieldstone foundation, the 1933 conversion and the restored shake roof.
2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Alabama", retrieved October 2026: Houston listed as a former county seat.
3. Gary B. Speck, Ghost Town USA, "Ghost Towns of Alabama", archived copy of February 16, 2009: Houston as a former county seat on CR 63, 120 people in 1990, a post office from 1853.
4. Jackson R. Stell, National Register nomination, "Houston Jail", Alabama Historical Commission, May 8, 1975 (listed June 5, 1975): the jail's construction, condition and later uses, the 1858 move, the 1867 grand jury, the 1868 courthouse, the move to Double Springs in 1884.
5. Historical Marker Database, "The Jail at Houston / Houston-County Seat of Winston", photographed by Darren Jefferson Clay, August 8, 2021: the Alabama Historical Commission marker text ("the old ghost town of Houston"), the 1850 and 1858 dates, Old Houston's location, the 1975 donation, the 2006 restoration, the nearby markers and the address; and the Willis Farris marker at the jail site.
6. Allison Griffin, "History on display," Alabama Living, May 29, 2015, a reader's submission printed in the article: the jail burned twice in the war and rebuilt in 1868, the seat moving effective July 23, 1883, use as a house until the early 1960s, the 2008 restoration.
7. Free State of Winston, "Houston History", undated: the 1850 county, Old Houston on Brushy Creek, the December 11, 1865, act, the Partridge Mill boards, the 1864 and 1869 killings, the 1868 courthouse fire.
8. Donna J. Siebenthaler, "Winston County," Encyclopedia of Alabama, updated October 14, 2025: Houston as the first county seat, the 1883 move, the Free State of Winston, "Houston (now known as Lynn)."
9. Trawick Ellis, "Houston, Alabama - The State's Oldest Surviving Log Jail", YouTube, posted October 2, 2023: the video on this page; the open jail, the busts, the churches, store, restaurant and post office at the crossroads.
10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Houston on the 1969 USGS sheet: Memorial Church, a pond and four cemeteries along the road: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Gadsden 1956, 1:250,000; Houston 1969, 1:24,000; Haleyville 1980, 1:100,000; Houston 2000, 1:24,000.