To the citizens of the City of Luverne,

You need to wake up and smell the roses.

There must be trouble in paradise when you let the commissioners and mayor destroy your most valuable assets.

I was so shocked when I drove down Glenwood Street and saw that the old city jail had been demolished!

This historic brick structure could not have been costing anything and did not eat anything (electricity).

It had the historic value of being located so close to the courthouse that law enforcement officers walked their prisoner to the courthouse in 1917 to be hanged, with citizens lining the streets to watch.

A gentleman from Rutledge lost his life while hauling the iron cages from the depot when the jail was built in 1893.

The brick structure would have looked good in a brochure to promote tourism in Luverne.

I am sure the money spent to demolish it could have been used to clean up the streets, fix the clock or paint a new face on other structures that belong to a beautiful historical city.

 

On behalf of the Crenshaw County Historical Society,

Eva Ray Stringer