Rusk State Hospital Stands on Penitentiary and Ironworks Ground

Iron ore brought the state prison to Rusk. A commission chose the region in 1875, and the state bought a 19,000-acre tract in 1877. Contractors raised the sandstone penitentiary building the next year with walls two and a half feet thick.

Prisoners helped build the Texas State Railroad from Rusk to Palestine. They also built the Old Alcalde furnace beside the prison, where local ore became iron products used in construction and state buildings.

The Legislature changed the facility into a state hospital in 1917. Renovation made the old building ready for hospital use in 1919. Industry, confinement, health care, and state power therefore share the same ground in Rusk, even though the institution changed around them.

The marker is not a roadside stop now. The Texas Historical Commission lists it in storage and places the old building on restricted hospital property.