Clarke County Jail - Athens, GA
N 33° 57.585 W 083° 23.106
17S E 279613 N 3760256
This old jail has been refurbished and houses offices.
Waymark Code: WM60N6
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 03/12/2009
Views: 1
The Clarke County Jail, more commonly known as the Old Clarke County Jail, is located at 175 Hill Street on the Old Courthouse Square (Tax Parcel No. 17-1-A1-I-001).
This two-story, utilitarian building displays a stuccoed and scored exterior, a feature unknown for any other Georgian jail of the period. Portions of the irregular windows have been sealed with concrete block. The ground floor door is to the left of center, and a wooden exterior stair leads from the northeast corner to the second-floor door, which is right of center. Tiny eyebrow dormers accent the roof, originally covered with tin. Five chimneys, at different heights and angles, rise along the sides of the building. The interior "fireproof" construction consists of I-beam framework with curved corrugated iron vaults and poured-concrete floors. The central hall, which originally paralleled the short sides of the building on both floors, remains intact on the ground floor, but all the second story partitions have been removed. The original trap door is visible from the central hall on the ground floor.
Having founded the school of engineering at the University of Georgia, Col. Leon Henry Charbonnier designed several buildings in the Athens area, including Moore College. In 1875, Clarke County purchased the Stevens property on Prince Avenue for the construction of a courthouse complex. Charbonnier designed the courthouse and the jail, and Eaves, McGinty & Company built them. Clarke County's present courthouse was constructed in downtown Athens in 1913, and Athens High School moved the next year from Childs Street into the old courthouse building. When the high school built a new facility off South Milledge in the 1950s, the vacant property was divided and sold and the courthouse and jailer's house were demolished. The old jail, located on the western part of the original site, survived as a warehouse. In 1991 Athens Regional Medical Center acquired the property through a land exchange with Athens-Clarke County and donated the building and a portion of the tract to the Historic Cobbham Foundation in 1995.
The Clarke County Jail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (May 29, 1980) and has been locally designated as a Historic Landmark (January 8, 1991).
link