Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Taylor County was created from Madison County on December 23, 1856. It was named for Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States and commander of U.S. Army forces in Florida during part of the Second Seminole War. The name of the county seat was changed from Rosehead to Perry in 1875 in honor of Madison Starke Perry, governor of Florida from 1857-1861. This former jail is the oldest surviving public building in Taylor County. Erected in 1912, the Colonial Revival building was designed by Benjamin Bosworth Smith, an architect from Montgomery, Alabama, who had designed the Taylor County Courthouse erected four years earlier. The courthouse was demolished in the 1960s. A new jail was constructed in 1958.