What to See in Huntsville - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Huntsville, Texas. The Texas Prison Museum is located in Huntsville, Texas.

The non-profit museum features the history of the prison system in Texas (Huntsville is the home of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and several prisons including the Ellis Unit which previously housed death row, and Huntsville Unit which houses the execution chamber). There are many different artifacts in the museum, including an electric chair named "Old Sparky" that was formerly used from 1924 to 1964 as the primary means of execution.

The museum was founded in 1989 and originally located in downtown Huntsville. It moved to its current location northwest of town (on Texas State Highway 75 at Interstate 45 Exit 118) in 2002.^[1]

Museum in Huntsville, Texas. Steamboat House is located at Sam Houston State University, in the city of Huntsville, county of Walker, in the U.S. state of Texas. Dr. Rufus W. Bailey built the house in 1858 as a wedding gift for his son, but the couple refused to live in it because of its unusual architecture, which caused the locals to give it the nickname "steamboat". It is the house where Sam Houston died July 26, 1863. Houston's funeral was held in the upstairs parlor. The house is part of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum complex.

Bailey died shortly before Houston, and the house was inherited by his son Frank. The house was sold to A. C. McKeen, who sold it to Pleasant Kittrell in 1866. Kittrell died in 1867 as the result of the same yellow fever epidemic that claimed the life of Margaret Lea Houston. The house had numerous owners, until it was purchased in 1933 by businessman J. E. Josey, who deeded it to the Texas Historical Commission. The house was moved to the grounds of the university in 1936. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1964.^[2]

Cemetery. The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery of the U.S. state of Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The colloquial name for the cemetery is Peckerwood Hill. The name originates from "Peckerwood", an African-American insult towards poor white people, because many of those buried at the cemetery were poor.

It is the place where prisoners not claimed by their families are buried. It is the largest prison cemetery in the State of Texas. Byrd's first prisoners were interred there in the mid-1800s, and the prison agencies of Texas have maintained the cemetery since then. The warden of the Huntsville Unit (nicknamed the "Walls Unit") maintains the cemetery.^[3]