Places to Stay

Central Texas Cell Block Hotel Has a Rap Sheet Worth Reading

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Tony Maples Photography

 

For those of you wondering what being in jail might be like, you’re in luck. Clifton, Texas, is home to a hotel called The Cell Block, which, for decades, had served as the city jail in this Central Texas town of 3,000 people. This 1930s-era facility has since been transformed into a unique hotel, for which you won’t need to be arrested to stay at. You’ll actually want to stay here!

Central Texas Cell Block Hotel Has a Rap Sheet Worth Reading

Photo: Facebook/The Cell Block

For four decades, The Cell Block was the holding cell for local drunks and non-threatening belligerents (and sometimes pals of the jailers who needed to “sleep it off”). Its website provides a history of the facility but also both a clever and inviting play on words pertaining to this incarceration station: “Imagine a place where you can escape the controlling bars of your day-to-day routine, where only you hold the key to your happiness. Break the chains of monotony and come to The Cell Block, where luxurious solitary confinement awaits you.”

Central Texas Cell Block Hotel Has a Rap Sheet Worth Reading

Photo: Facebook/The Cell Block

With its boutique-style lobby, and upscale, minimalistic appeal, The Cell Block not only provides accommodations, it does so in a way that’s both unforgettable and enjoyable. Guests have access to a record player and a selection of albums to go along with the theme (i.e. “At Folsom Prison” by Johnny Cash) or they can listen to the radio. There is no television set, but there is an amazing rooftop “prison yard” patio from which you can gaze at the stars high up in the Texas sky. The hotel provides a complimentary bottle of Tempranillo wine from The Cell Block’s own label, as well as a flask of single malt whiskey from Waco’s Balcones Distillery. Ultimately, those that stay are given all the creature comforts that weren’t afforded to those that stayed before (obviously not by choice). It’s an amazing, inviting way to re-purpose a facility that, at one time, would have been avoided at all costs!

Sources:

The Cell Block

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