Haunting photos show abandoned Orange jail

A holding cell is pictured at the old Orange City Jail, located in what was once the carriage house of the Brown family home on Green Avenue. The house was later the home of city hall. Photo taken Monday, Jan. 27, 2020 Kim Brent/The Enterprise less A holding cell is pictured at the old Orange City Jail, located in what was once the carriage house of the Brown family home on Green Avenue. The house was later the home of city hall. Photo taken Monday, Jan. ... more Photo: Kim Brent/The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent/The Enterprise Image 1 of / 355 Caption Close Haunting photos show abandoned Orange jail 1 / 355 Back to Gallery

Like with many spots in town, when now-retired Orange police Maj. Don Sullivan drives by the former police station and jail on West Green Avenue, he sees ghosts.

“When you talk about ghosts, you’re talking about stories, not dead people,” he said.

The building, which sits directly behind the former City Hall at 803 W. Green Ave., was constructed in 1924 by Orange businessman and philanthropist E.W. Brown, Jr.

The former police department once served as a garage and servants’ quarters for the Brown family, while the old City Hall was the family’s home. Although from the inside, they’re hardly recognizable as such.

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Together they are one of only a few historic homes left in the city.

They were purchased by the City of Orange in 1944 and used by city staff until last year, although the police department had relocated by 1976.

“When they moved in here in ‘45, they probably thought this was paradise,” Sullivan said.

The city paid about $16,263 to remodel both buildings, he said. Today inside the former jail, paint is peeling and the mechanism used to open and close three of the cells doesn’t properly work.

But remnants of the people it once held persist through the graffiti-marked walls and “day room” table, as does the memories of those like Sullivan who worked in the facilities.

“It never looked good,” he said. “But it didn’t look nearly this bad.”

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In 2019, then-Interim City Manager Kelvin Knauf said the city was trying to find another use for the structures as it doesn’t want to sell or demolish them.

Maj. Steve Jones, who worked in the Green Avenue police station and jail for a year before the department moved to the former Savings and Loan building, said he would like the see the home restored like the W.H. Stark Mansion just two blocks away.

“It really needs to be made back into a house and be another attraction in downtown Orange,” the retired police officer said while standing in the empty jail. “It was a beautiful building and up here was the servant's quarters and the kitchen.”

However, restoration seems unlikely at this time.

Stark Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Tad McKee III said the foundation must be judicious on how money is spent, as their mission is not historical preservation.

“To purchase that and restore it or remodel it would really serve no useful purpose, no mission-related purpose for us to take money away from our core mission,” he said. “I’m sympathetic to people who want it preserved, but it’s beyond the mission of the Stark Foundation.”

It’s also been suggested that the city restore the former police station and jail to serve as a museum.

Despite being used only as a storage facility for decades, much of the building looks the way it did the day officers left in the 70s.

The jail, which could hold 20 people, was the city’s last facility for overnight stays. But it became costly and a great liability to hold inmates for extended periods of time.

“City jails didn’t have standards. County jails did,” Sullivan said. “The state didn’t say we couldn’t operate a city facility, but we were at a greater liability.”

“We had a holding cell at the (Savings and Loan building) while we did paperwork, and then we’d take them to the county jail,” Jones added. “Liability changed and the city couldn’t afford to have a jail.”

Instead of having a nurse, a specific number of jailers per prisoners and other staff as is mandated today, just one officer was on jailer duty each day each shift. That job included getting meals from a local cafe, delivering them to the detainees and watching them.

On a recent tour of the facility, Sullivan pointed out the bed that held Charles Dowden, one of three men prosecuted for the killing of Orange police Capt. Danny Gray.

Dowden and his brother Billy Wayne Dowden in June 1974 around 1 a.m. were reported to have been robbing a convenience store at 10th Street and Green Avenue, Sullivan said.

“Danny just loved police work,” he said. “He always wanted to catch a robbery in progress.”

Gray successfully arrested Charles Dowden and brought him back to the jail, only to be confronted a few hours later by Billy Wayne Dowden, who said he was there to get his brother out of jail.

Dowden began shooting into the dispatch office while another officer, hiding in the stairwell, shot back. Gray was fatally struck in the process — the third on-duty officer killed during an attempted jail escape.

Charles Dowden received life sentences on charges of murder and aggravated robbery, but he was released from prison on parole a few years ago. Billy Ray Dowden also was given a life sentence, and denied parole in 2016. Currently housed in Beaumont’s Stiles Unit, his next parole review will be in 2021.

Clifford Blancett, a third man who was involved, also was given a life sentence but later died in prison.

For the most part, the Orange jail held those charged with “drunk in public,” the public intoxication charge at the time, or panhandling, and many of the officers were familiar with them.

“Town drunks weren’t a problem,” Jones said. “They’d come in here, stay a couple of days, get a meal and wash your car. You knew if they got a little money, they’d be back next week.”

The jail stopped housing people overnight even before the department moved into a new building, but experiences there helped shape safety measures in future stations.

In the current building, visitors need approval to get past certain doors — in part because of Gray’s killing.

“You think you’re secure just because it’s a police station and people have guns,” Sullivan said. “It took some of the innocence away.”

Chief Lane Martin said even the people who have face-to-face contact with visitors in the foyer work behind bulletproof glass in a secure area.

“Public access is still public friendly, but it’s not accessible where someone who’s mad at you can get in,” Jones said. “It’s not being scared, you just know what’s coming up.”

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

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