Bexar County's Riverwalk Jail

In a blog post on San Antonio, I wrote I once stayed at a hotel that used to be the city's former jail. The Holiday Inn Express Riverwalk is currently located in a historic building that used to house the Bexar County Jail between 1878 and 1962. The jail, the third such facility in Bexar County's long history, was designed by British-born architect Alfred Giles and constructed (at a cost of $34,000) during a dark period of unlawfulness and terror in San Antonio where drunk citizens attempted to start rowdy gunfights in the streets and mess with sporting women in the makeshift bedrooms in local parlors. Executions were common in Texas at the end of the nineteenth century, and the new jail on Camaron Street became a hub for death row prisoners. Most of the dangerous inmates sentenced to the Bexar County Jail were swiftly eliminated by hanging; a trap door was later installed between the second and third floors, and a rope sat coiled up on the wall of Sheriff Owen Kilday's office. The inmates who were kept alive were housed in one of the building's 86 cells. Each cell was outfitted with a simple bed and mattress, sink, toilet, and a few shelves, which the inmates decorated with books, paintings, and other personal objects. The building's many windows (which were needed since there was no air conditioning during this era) were outfitted with steel bars that prevented the notorious criminals from escaping. Inmates rarely saw visitors and often found new, peaceful hobbies to entertain themselves, such as painting, reading, and sculpting rocks.

The Bexar County Jail was a haunted place prior to its renovation.

The Bexar County Jail was remodeled in 1911 and 1926. Following a prison reform movement at the end of the Progressive Era, the last hanging at the jail occurred in 1923. Executions in the county were then moved to the prison in Huntsville (this time by electric chair). Several inmates tried to escape from the five-story jail; some succeeded, others did not. The last inmate to (unsuccessfully) make his surprise exit was Jack Steese in the early 1920s. He escaped his cell by cutting the bars on his window and climbing down the wall by a firehose in broad daylight. The guard dogs in the front yard must have liked Steese since they did not bark and alert the guards! Although he had crafted a genius plan, Steese was not the brightest of criminals and did not plan his getaway. He went to his mother's house in San Antonio, and it was not long before Steese was pulled out from under his bed by the jail's deputies and taken back to the prison. Steese received an additional charge for escaping. In the early 1960s, several inmates hatched a devious plan to overpower the deputies and escape the aging jail. During lunch one day in early 1962, a group of desperate prisoners on the fourth and fifth floors threw their stew and potatoes meals at the guards and demanded fried eggs instead. The inmates were told, "Short orders are not permissible," and they proceeded to set fire to their mattresses. Sheriff William "Bill" Hauck Jr. and his deputies extinguished the fires with water and fired wax bullets at the rowdy prisoners. The ordeal lasted two hours. As a strict punishment, the sheriff put the rebels on a bread and water diet, as well as refused to give the inmates new mattresses for a week.

Clemente V. Apolinar (1891-1923), who brutally murdered teenager Theodore Bernhardt at Salado Creek, was the last inmate executed by hanging on February 23, 1923. He had been at the prison for about a year and a half. Apolinar refused to wear a hood at his execution, and when the trap door was released, Apolinar fell through and the rope almost decapitated him; it was a bloody, gruesome sight that sparked a lot of outrage among political activists in San Antonio. The execution was supervised by Sheriff James Stevens and Chief Deputy Alfonso Newton. 

After the unsuccessful disturbance, Hauck had a few remarks for the press: "This is NO darn hotel...If they don't like the meals we serve here, they can go somewhere else." Oddly, the sheriff's comment has proved to be somewhat ironic. Soon after, in September 1962, the Bexar County Jail closed and all its vile murderers, robbers, thieves, and petty criminals were transported to a newer, larger prison four blocks away at Nueva and Laredo Streets (one of the local newspapers recorded the spectacular grand opening ceremony for the new 707-bed jail, which was attended by over 1,300 citizens). The first meal served in this jail was stewed apples, sweet rolls, butter and jam, and coffee; this was distinctly different from the boiled bologna that had been served at the Bexar County Jail prior to its closing. Hauck's comments predicted the future; Baywood Hotels purchased the vacant property in 2002 and spent $6 million in extensively renovating the former jail. The building's original structure and basic interior design was preserved, and bars from many of the windows were cut to meet fire code requirements. The owner added a heated swimming pool and hot tub in a side parking area, and the attractive hotel now features valet parking, refrigerators and microwaves in each room, Internet and cable TV, a breakfast area (which serves a hot breakfast, not potatoes and stew!), and a business office in the grand lobby, which was built to resemble an old-style police booking station. Omar Guevara, former director of operations for Alamo City Hotels, provided some comical relief to the press: "Guests have been thrilled about getting 'booked' into a room. Our desk clerks joke with the guests about being in jail." Holiday Inn Express purchased the hotel in 2009. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay "behind bars" at this wonderful hotel! We will never forget (and chuckled a little) when the desk clerk jokingly announced, "You're our prisoner for the evening!"

The hotel was recently renovated and looks very handsome. Although some believe the building is haunted, my wife and I did not encounter spiritual objects/interactions during our pleasant stay. I would highly recommend staying at the Holiday Inn Express Riverwalk the next time you are in Bexar County!