The old Calaboose (or jail) still stands in Welsh. Built sometime before 1926, the single jail cell was a small structure attached to the original police and fire departments. Located right off the pavement of Palmer Street, near the Welsh Community Center, the jail cell is easy to locate. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, calaboose had been part of the English language for almost a century when John S. Farmer included the term in his 1889 book Americanisms – Old and New, defining it as “the common goal or prison.” Farmer also made the mention of the verb calaboose, meaning “to imprision,” but that term was apparently lost in the years between then and now. Calaboose is Spanish in origin, from the Spanish word calabozo, meaning “dungeon.”
