Qualla: Texas Prison Museum https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Texas Prison Museum https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum Texas Prison Museum: Introduction https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum/ Photo credit WhisperToMe, Public domain. The electric chair sits behind glass, its oak armrests worn smooth by the grip of 361 condemned men. Inmates built it themselves. They nicknamed it "Old Sparky" nearly a century ago, and that name stuck through four decades of executions, from 1924 to 1964, inside the Huntsville Unit known simply as "The Walls." The chair was eventually retired, replaced by lethal injection, then rescued from a prison dump and placed in the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, the small East Texas city that has served as the administrative heart of the state's penal system since 1849. This is not a museum that softens its subject. It puts you inside a cell, hands you the facts, and lets the weight of the place settle in.

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/9vkn-texas-prison-museum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Texas Prison Museum: The Town Behind the Walls https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum/ Photo credit WhisperToMe, Public domain. Huntsville has been synonymous with incarceration since the first three inmates arrived at the partially completed state penitentiary on October 2, 1849: a cattle thief, a murderer, and a horse thief. The Huntsville Unit, known as "The Walls" for its distinctive red-brick perimet...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/9vkn-texas-prison-museum-the-town-behind-the-walls.mp3 0:06 2 full Texas Prison Museum: Forty Years in the Chair https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum/ Photo credit WhisperToMe, Public domain. Old Sparky dominates the museum's central exhibit. The electric chair was constructed by prison inmates and first used on February 8, 1924, when five men were executed in a single session. Over the next four decades, 361 men sat in its oak frame, a number that made Texas one of t...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/9vkn-texas-prison-museum-forty-years-in-the-chair.mp3 0:06 3 full Texas Prison Museum: The Wildest Show in Texas https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum/ Photo credit WhisperToMe, Public domain. For fifty-five years, the most popular sporting event in Texas was not football but the Texas Prison Rodeo. Started in 1931 by prison system general manager Marshall Lee Simmons, the rodeo began on a vacant field behind The Walls and within two years drew crowds of nearly 15,000,...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/9vkn-texas-prison-museum-the-wildest-show-in-texas.mp3 0:06 4 full Texas Prison Museum: What the Inmates Made https://qualla.com/texas-prison-museum/ Photo credit WhisperToMe, Public domain. Beyond the headline exhibits, the museum holds a large collection of prisoner-created art, woodwork, and crafts that reveal another dimension of life behind bars. Intricate carved pieces, paintings, and leatherwork speak to the creativity that persists even in confinement. Then t...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/k/n/texas-prison-museum-wp/9vkn-texas-prison-museum-what-the-inmates-made.mp3 0:06 5 full