Linn County Jail and Sheriff's Residence - Linneus, MO - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Summary:
The Linn County Jail and Sheriff's Residence, 102 North Main Street, Linneus, Linn County, was constructed in 1871. The jail and sheriff's residence faces the east side of the Linn County courthouse, which is located directly in the center of Public Square in Linneus. The two-story building is constructed of concrete, brick and wood, and has a one-story brick addition with basement, built as a WPA project in 1937, on the north elevation. For one hundred years, it served as a home and center of justice until it was converted to a museum in the 1970's.

Description:
The historic sheriff's residence and jail in Linneus is a two-story I house measuring, without the 1937 addition, 42'8" x 17'6" with the main entrance facing west. The 1937 addition measures 41'3" x 19'5"and is attached to the northeast side of the 1871 house. The jail is a one-story rectangular structure attached to the east side of the sheriff's house, measuring 31 '8" x 17'3". The floor of the jail is four feet below the main floor of the house, requiring a set of stairs to enter. The house and jail were built of orange brick, and the 1937 addition is red brick. Both were laid in a stretcher pattern. The west (front) facade of the 1871 house is five bays wide. The north and south facades are each two bays wide. The windows are one-over-one double hung, with a shallow arch over each window. On the second story, the two northernmost windows are covered with steel lattice-type bars, as are the two top windows on the north facade. These bars cover the windows of the women's cell in the north bedroom of the second floor. The north and south facade have four windows each, two on each floor. The east facade is without windows. A wooden half-width porch with hipped roof covers most of the west first story. The west entrance is a 67" x 27" doorway with painted wooden sidelights and a lintel above the door. The house has a side-gabled roof of low pitch with returned eaves, wide cornice bands and asphalt shingles.
The jail is a rectangular building built of orange brick, the same as the 1871 house. The jail can be entered only through a barred doorway on the east side of the central hallway of the 1871 house. Most of the jail an open room which prisoners were allowed to roam. On the south side of the jail are three cells. Two are constructed of iron bars, and the third, in the southwest corner of the jail, is made of sheets of iron. This is the solitary confinement cell, and there is only a six-inch slit in the door to let light in and presumably pass food through. There is a toilet, sink, and shower in the solitary cell. The cells appear to be prefabricated, as they are similar to the pre-made cells in the St. Francois County Jail in Farmington, Missouri, which was built at approximately the same time as the Linn County Jail. According to Debbie Sheals, author of the St. Francois Jail nomination, cells of this type were what was then state of the art technology. 1 The cells were ordered from a manufacturer and assembled in the jail. There is another toilet, sink and shower in the southeast corner of the jail. The only windows in the jail are three 1 '6" x 1 '6" openings on the east facade. The floor of the jail is cement, but before the 1920s it was dirt. The ceiling of the jail is pressed tin. It has been reinforced and repainted over the years, but it is the original ceiling. The sheriff's house and jail have separate roofs, however each building has the same roof design. The jail is front-gabled with low pitch, returned eaves, wide cornice bands, and asphalt shingles